Retrofit Catalytic Converter for Wood-Burning Stoves

摘要

The major purpose of this project was to design, fabricate, test, and evaluate a retrofit catalytic converter for woodburning stoves. In the interim between our date of application March 5, 1981 and the beginning of the grant period December 1, 1981, several such devices became commercially available. Therefore, we decided to modify the purpose and direction of our project. In summary, we designed and constructed a calorimeter room in a building located on the campus of Northern Kentucky University. We equipped this room with a woodburning stove and a metal chimney extending through the roof. We designed and constructed the appropriate instrumentation for monitoring the heat output of the stove. We observed and recorded the operating characteristics of this stove over a period of several days. We then equipped the stove with a barometric damper and repeated the experiment. We are now in the process of equipping the stove with a catalytic converter. Thus the major emphasis of the project currently is to test and evaluate several commercial retrofit devices which are purported to reduce creosote and/or increase the efficiency of a woodburning stove. (ERA citation 08:057263)