I've began reading about TLUD, supposed to be very clean burning. Many of the TLUD stoves are operated without an external chimney, not that I'd attempt to do that. Many the TLUD wood heaters are actually cooking stoves. I'm looking for a heating design that is suited for biomass such as the mountain of wood chips that we have locally. The TLUD seems to fit the parameters for that. I've been reading some of the work of Paul Anderson and have to pause to soak it in. I'm very new at this, but the TLUD look doable for me. The TLUD produces charcoal that has to be manually removed and I couldn't automate the feeding of the wood chips but it looks like a fun test heater for wood chips. In some countries these cost less than $30 US dollars, so I think its a reasonable project for me.
In another post I mentioned the potential of spent brewery grain as a fuel. The TLUD converts carbohydrates to clean burning gas, with much of the carbon converted to charcoal, which is often used to enrich the soil (or burn it in a rocket heater). All sorts of biomass can be efficiently used in the TLUD designs, so it is claimed, with less soot and ash than conventional wood stoves.
There are so many different ways to efficiently burn, and yet the potential is in the future. There are so many alternatives but many of the builds aren't necessarily costly. It is estimated that 80 percent of the potential of the TLUD biomass stoves is yet to be discovered as they were first used about the time that the rocket heater was developed.
Any comments on the pros and cons of the TLUD?