Festival of Blessings

The following article had been carried in the U.S. publication Whole Life Times and had been reproduced from its website. The article is also mentioned in the database of  the Australian National Library.

When I boarded the last bus from Tezpur to Rangapara, in the heart of India's north-eastern  state of Assam, the orb of the rising moon already dominated the winter evening. I knew a  Purnima (full moon) was approaching, more so because I was on my way to attend an  obscure Buddhist festival. And these are inevitably held on full-moon nights.  When the bus finally moved, the tiredness and irritation of the day's travel gave way to the  intent of studying the moonlit countryside. This lasted until the vehicle turned off the  highway to the side roads, which in daylight resembled nothing so much as a bombed airfield,  were even worse in darkness. The moon I had so enthusiastically planned to observe kept  bobbing up and down outside my window, disappearing at times, as the bus lurched from  one crater to another.  On my previous visit, I had arrived unannounced at Assam's Little Tibet, severely disrupting  the academic atmosphere of the State's only Tantric Buddhist seminary. This time, however,  the Tashi Cholling Ningmapa monastery radiated a welcoming aura of festivity. Outside the  gate stood many cars bearing registration plates of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan.  Inside, crowds of maroon clan Lamas and Annis (nuns) mingled with the laity. Music made  indistinguishable by the loud buzz of human speech blared from an unidentifiable source.   I managed to find a couple of familiar faces, and before long I was sitting in one of the  monastery's back rooms sipping butter tea and listening to warm words of appreciation for  responding to their invitation. A temporary surge of self-importance hindered me from  confessing that I am always on the lookout for one. Later, Rigzin Dorjee, the ever-smiling  son of the abbot, Venerable Terton Kunzang Dichen Linpa Rinpoche, explained to me the  significance of the next day's event, Wang, the annual ceremony for receiving blessings.  The monks had arranged for my hotel room near the railway station. All throughout that night  I could hear people arriving for the coming festivities.  The following morning, in what resembled a trans-Himalayan convention, throngs of people of  diverse communities and nationalities marched towards the monastery. Some, like the  Monpa and Sherkdukpen tribals of Arunachal Pradesh, as well as their Bhutanese neighbors,  could be identified by dress,  others by badges saying something like "Sherpa Association of Assam."  The ceremony had already begun by the time we reached the venue. The grounds were  thronged with hundreds of pilgrims, and scores more joined by the minute. The Rinpoche  and his son, aided by a few disciples, were consecrating a new section of the monastery  housing several sizable Mani prayer wheels. The Wang, I learned, would be bestowed in  the afternoon, preceded by dances (chams) highlighting aspects of Tibetan Mahayana  Buddhism.  First was the dance of Dorjee Drolod, a wrathful form of PadmaSambhava, the maverick  Indian Tantric who established the Dharma of Buddha in Tibet and is the tutelary deity of  the Ningmapa sect. Performed by the Drapas (student monks) of the institution, it featured  a Dorjee Drolod in a fierce wooden mask prancing amongst heavenly damsels in wigs,  each sounding a pentagonal Dambaru (tiny drum). Finally, he sat down and the heavenly  damsels pranced around him.   The dance of the spiraling Black Hat Tantrics or Nakpas was next, but the most interesting  performances of the day were the dances of the Garuda and the Yamdutas. In both instances,  the performers wore finely crafted wooden masks denoting their respective roles.  The Garuda dance displayed the amalgamation of Hindu thought within the Mahayana  Buddhist theology, where the eagle-faced Garudas are the destroyers of evil Nagas or  dragons who hid the Jewel of Bodhi. Chasing the dragons with spread arms, the Garudas  leapt in formations, culminating the act by clutching symbolic snakes in their beaks.  The skull-and-bone Yamdutas, meanwhile, put on a wild exhibition. The messengers of death  illustrated the relentless juxtaposition of serenity and suffering, the impermanence of life and  the ultimate end for each one of us. Often considered grotesque, the emphasis on the  hideous is well in tune with the Vajrayana and the Tibetan Mahayana doctrine.  Dressed in absurd ragamuffin attires with equally comical masks, jokers kept the audience  happy between acts. Whether playing a daft mendicant or a weird old hag, they never failed  to obtain steady peals of laughter, especially from the younger spectators.   Bearing a special significance upon the forthcoming rite, the Ging and the Zinbab Cham were  the two final dances before the commencement of the Wang. For the Ging Cham, dancers in  demon outfits rushed in frenzy amongst pilgrims beating their drums to chase away lurking evi l spirits. The Zinbab Cham invoked the deities upon the people gathered for the Wang.  Both were accompanied by furious drumming and a whole spectrum of strange "toots" and  "blares" from a wide array of Tibetan musical instruments, from huge mountain horns to small  trumpets and cymbals. The steady chant of monks dominated the background.   The time for bestowing the Wang finally arrived, and the pilgrims zealously rushed to take  places in the line filing past the Rinpoche and his entourage. Clutching the customary khada  or silk scarf, each aspirant received blessings from the Rinpoche by being tapped with a dadar,  a holy wand. Da means "arrow" and dar means "five colors," each denoting one of the five  senses. Then, each pilgrim was touched upon the forehead by a tsebum, a small pot-like  vessel imbued with scriptures and mandalas based on Tantric ecstatic exercises.   A ritual drink comprised of highly camphorated whiskey was served in a bowl made from a  human skull. The distribution of a barley sweet called tseril rounded off the observance.   After the day's boisterous festivities, I eschewed the noisy hotel near the train station, and  instead slept in the prayer hall beneath the stern gazes of the Guru Rinpoche  PadmaSambhava, Lokeshwara and Chensrezig. Outside, the full moon covered  everything with a pale silvery glow.

Saving Oil or Snake Oil??

snake oil (dictionary.com)

noun

1. any of various liquid concoctions of questionable medical value sold as an all-purpose curative,especially by traveling hucksters.

2. Slang. deceptive talk or actions; hooey; bunkum. 

From commuters puttering to work on miserly two-wheelers, to those who splurge on the latest imported four-wheeled status symbol, albeit a diesel version and the industrial sector for whom it comprises a major recurring expenditure, high prices of Fuel are a painful reality for all. However, whenever a technology that promises to save a few litres of the all-precious fluid is announced, it is instantly relegated to the category of Snake Oil Salesmen, in which none but the most gullible would believe in or actually spend any money on. 

But do they work?

The only question ever uttered about any of these wonder devices, additives or technologies is invariably “does it work?” Unfortunately, there is no single universal answer, as the field is varied, comprising of gadgets of all shapes, sizes and operating principles, liquids of different characteristics and backed-up by theories ranging from sometimes sensible to outright bizarre. Nonetheless, over the years, a trickle of  feedback from both the public and the industries as well as several unbiased studies found that many of these do work, some albeit erratically and others very well. So despite the smirking hosts of TV science shows, the opinionated professor who is also the local Skeptic Society’s chairman and sole member, or the general notion “if it works why isn’t everyone using them,” the field of Fuel Saving Technologies, which is almost as old IC engines, simply refuses to die out. 

Governments on their part, despite giving loud lip service to the need of fuel economy, do very little to actually support the cause due to a conflict of interest, as oil revenues and taxes are a major source of income. The vanguard of all hydrocarbon burning technologies in the US the EPA(Environmental Protection Agency) is chronically myopic towards any Fuel saving device or technology and usually does a very good job in discrediting the inventors.  Meanwhile the few times our Indian government or a reputed institution was in the news because of this subject, it was usually for all the wrong reasons. A classic example is that of one Rammar Pillai who in 1996 declared that he had concocted a herbal petrol, a claim check and endorsed by a number of IIT scientists, the Department of Science and Technology and countless political figures, but who gets arrested four years later by the CBI in a murky case for selling a noxious inflammable chemical soup sans any herbs as his wonder fuel.

Some do, others in fact very well.

The ever-climbing prices of Petrol and Diesel worldwide have resulted in a renewed interest in fuel saving and a slew of new, old and even archaic technologies are now being shared around the world thanks to various Internet forms dedicated to the subject. Technologies such as HHO, essentially a highly efficient electrolyzer that splits water into Hydrogen and oxygen are almost becoming a mainstream retrofit on cars, to the extent that even Police departments in several US counties are fitting them in their cars.

Now, take for example the most dis-believable gadget of them all: the Magnetic Fuel saver. Consisting of a tiny magnet attached to the fuel line of a car or a two-wheeler often sold by fly-by-night dealers with the most extravagant of claims. But interestingly, only recently it has officially surfaced that Russian, Chinese and many now South American Oil companies have been successfully using magnets to reduce wax build-up in their sub-sea pipelines. In the process proving that magnetic fields have a perceptible effect on the viscosity and flow characteristics of liquid hydrocarbons,  thus demonstrating that if such magnetic devices are made with due scientific research and laboratory tests, there is a strong possibility they could indeed improve the atomization of liquid fuels and consequently decrease fuel intake.

On the other end of the spectrum is the complex field of Fuel Emulsification where hydrocarbons such as Heavy Fuel Oil or Diesel are infused with a small percentage of water in micron sized droplets to improve burning efficiency and save fuel anywhere in the range of 5% to 25%. The process can be accomplished by cavitation, ultrasound or mechanical means along with special additives to keep the resulting suspension from separating or coalescing into their individual mediums. Fuel emulsification has proved itself across the world with big names like Elftotalfina, Caterpillar, Komatsu and PDVSA jumping on the bandwagon. Surprisingly the the EPA of USA carried out extensive tests on emulsified fuels and released impressive results. 

In India, the technology was endorsed by none other than the then President Mr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam who said, “Emulsified fuels are found to give much better emission reduction towards reduced particulate and Oxides of Nitrogen emission reduction along with fuel saving that it is now implemented in most of the developed countries.” 

And yet the number of  companies in the country or elsewhere adopting this technology for their oil fired furnaces, boilers or generators is still in single digits. The main reason being that the very idea of mixing oil with water is unpalatable for most, followed by misgivings that water would have a quenching effect on the flame or that the calorific value of the Fuel  would be reduced. In fact the EPA study on the subject revealed that an emulsion with 15% water actually has about 25% more caloric value than the base fuel of the same volume.

Not Snake Oil, but Lousy Salesmen all the same..!!

Despite the universal moniker of being Snake Oil Salesmen, deluded individuals or both, in real life most Fuel Saving Technology providers are just inexperienced or very naive businessmen and despite having the odd conman in their midst, the majority never started off with the objective of cheating anyone. As a rule most of them are startups consisting of a small team with limited finances due to  which their inventions despite giving positive results in controlled environments, hardly ever get extensively tested under real world working conditions before being released commercially. Consequently many of the products are crude, at best give intermittent results, with operating principles poorly understood by their creators themselves. 

Having little prior business experience they get quickly bogged down trying to market a “possibly-working” but definitely little understood concept and sooner or later almost all of them quickly zoom down an express elevator from starry-eyed ideology, through greed to cynicism before finally closing shop. In other instances, many spent half their lifetime inventing and perfecting their Fuel saver and sadly spend the other half trying to convince the world that it works at the same time paranoid that their ideas would be stolen or that they would fall prey to the shadowy strong-arm of the Oil lobby. 

Many also fall prey to dubious business practices by taking advances from clients or security deposits from dealer and later fall on the wrong side of the law for either failing to deliver or producing a substandard product that does not live up to the claims. Paul Pantone, the U.S. inventor of the infamous GEET, who spent a decade fighting legal suits and a stint in the psychiatric hospital is the perfect example of a discredited inventor. This however didn't stop the French from embracing his concepts and developing them further.  Known there as the Giller-Pantone system, this unique water-fuel doping system it has been replicated thousands of times and at least two companies are manufacturing fully accredited fuel saving gadgets based on his principles.

We are big, you are nobody.

If a fuel saving device or additive sold in the automotive markets still manages to generate some sales, the Industrial Fuel Saving Technology specialists (we would call them iFSTs) have it far worse. 

The first setback in the implementation of a Fuel saving technology comes in the guise of prospective clients who even after seeing a certain technology proving successful in one or two installations, have no qualms in audaciously demanding the works for free or on near impossible terms. They rationalize their argument as “they are offering a chance in a lifetime” and assure of a landslide of future business opportunities if proven a success with them, or simply that they are indulging in an expensive gamble by trying out an untested new technology. At times it is the client’s employees safeguarding their jobs and adopt a position with the reasoning that “if it works I win and if it doesn’t its at the vendors cost.” But with many companies it is almost an unspoken rule to exploit small vendors to the maximum.

The representatives of an Indian origin non-ferrous metal giant has set a record of sorts in wasting time of nearly every specialist of this field in the country by repeatedly asking for information, demands that they visits their various plants(obviously at their own cost) and later invariably bury any potential deal under an avalanche of  impossible terms and conditions from heavy discounts on pricing to unrealistic payment schedules, and demands of various bank and performance guarantees, which no supplier would ever agree to provide or be able to satisfy. 

Begrudging employees and rampant pilferage.. 

Even an industry  decides to implement a iFST, it is hardly ever smooth sailing, because contrary to their expectations of a “fit, forget and get magical fuel savings” system, the new additions requires regular maintenance, a strict handling and consumption measuring methods. Furthermore, instead of recruiting a new person for the job, generally someone from the existing staff is given the additional charge and invariably the new workload is met with a sense of grudge and profound skepticism. 

Likewise, very few industries have an independent energy-monitoring department and the area falls under the purview of the production department that by its very nature is biased towards maintaining and increasing productivity levels and not saving fuel. Consequently, fuel usage readings are frequently skewed and physical stock levels hardly ever tally with the figures in the books. 

Pilferage of fuel in its various avatars is another all pervading phenomena and typically comprise a long chain of participants right from the supplier to the transporter and frequently many a company’s own staff, right from the security and stores clerks right up to production, purchase managers and even to the occasional director. And as any Fuel handling or management systems automatically makes transparent all anomalies and reveals the actual stock and consumption figures, it is invariably sabotaged and the technology quickly declared a dud.

The Fall Guy

In the recent years, a number of steel rolling mills in India  signed up for a UNDP-GEF and Indian Ministry of Steels sponsored initiative for introducing energy efficient technologies into the sector. Others, had by their own accord installed Fuel saving devices in their plants, but within a few months virtually all gave up on their efforts  as their production staff made the new equipment and practices  , the scapegoats for all their own inefficiencies and shortfalls. 

The best example of how an iFST is made the Fall Guy, is the case of a government owned oil refinary in Eastern India, which on the directive of the head office to implement Fuel Oil Emulsification decided to design their own Emulsifier on the basis of a schematic diagram found on the internet. As per their own admission, Rs.25 Lakhs(USD 47,000) was spent on cladding of Oil tanks and pipelines, and making a new pump house where two old pumps were pressed into service. The only missing component was the chemical additive to suspend the Fuel-water emulsion, for which a global tender valued at a princely sum of Rs. 50,000/-(USD 950) payable only after delivery and conducted tests was floated. The design of their so-called emulsifying unit was bereft of the slightest engineering common sense and was guaranteed not to work under any circumstances. Likewise none of the people involved in this farce had the slightest exposure to the field of emulsification or had ever bothered to contact any specialist in the field. Predictably their tests failed miserably, but they had the Fall Guy in place: the vendor of the Emulsifying additive!!

Yes, it works, but it doesn't!!

There are also many instances when an iFST work flawlessly with the results for all to see on paper, but where the industrial clients blatantly deny the facts. Sometimes its just shoddy calculations but mostly it is to hide the actual fuel consumption statistics as the same could be extrapolated into actual production figures by the various government revenue departments. Occasionally, it is to prevent the provider from going to their competition or simply the human ego that doesn’t want the guy in front look too good. 

Rarely, motives are more sinister and a real life example is that of one Ghaziabad based Steel rolling mill. Having installed a Heavy Fuel Oil Emulsifier in their plant, they first tried to reverse-engineer the machine and consequently made changes that drastically reduced its effectiveness. Next came a torrent of complaints alleging that they were not getting any savings, but were proven baseless upon studying their production and fuel consumption records. Thereafter came blunt demands for the formulation of the chemical additive that was required for generating the Emulsion. When the vendor refused to bog down to their coercive demands the company unleashed a year-long campaign of pseudo-legal intimidations referring to a non-existent  arbitration agreement and appointing their own foreman as the so-called Sole Arbitrator. 

But, the Future 

Comprising a motley group of brilliant scientist and experienced technocrats who are also lousy businessmen,  starry eyed naïve idealists or battle hardened cynics, with the occasional charlatan in their midst, on first instances most fuel saving specialists  don’t encourage much confidence either in their product, technology or ability. 

Nevertheless, what also cannot be denied is that many of them are genuine experts in their field and know what they are doing and consistently deliver due results. 

On the other hand is the Industry, which desperately needs Fuel saving measures, but is rife with malpractices and internal corruption and yet ceaselessly tries to exploit small startups for their own benefit by either making them work for free or by trying to intimidate them into revealing their secrets. 

On the whole the future for iFSTs and their savants seems really bleak except for the fact that the prices of energy keep escalating and sooner or latter both the sides would have to settle in a mutually conducive professional environment.  Where the genuine experts in Fuel savings or energy management gets their financial dues and not expected to run after carrots, made the fall guy or be intimidated in revealing all their secrets and where the Industry on their part starts focusing internally and makes an earnest effort in bringing about transparency in their ranks and operations. 

Ravi Deka is an energy management consultant and a pioneer in introducing Fuel Emulsification concepts in the country. 

www.rade.co.in

The Volcano That Saves Trees - Ravi Deka

Sometimes in the autumn of 2010 I was flying from Mumbai to my hometown Guwahati, as usually on the cheapest air-ticket with a tradeoff in having a long looping route, via Kolkata and Agartala. The short stretch between Agartala and Guwahati is actually a quick aerial hop over Meghalaya, which if luck accords, would remain cloud-cover free offering the sight of marvelous verdant mountainsides, steep gorges and snaking brown rivers below. It was during this flight, when thanks to exceptionally clear weather I noticed the scattered pockets of deforestation on seemingly inaccessible hillsides, ones caused not by commercial logging but by the nearby villager’s mundane need for firewood.

Deforestation; caused by indispensable human need for Firewood, an endemic problem of all the mountain areas of India. 

 I remembered instantly how once as a guest of the venerable T.G.Rinpoche at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh (another mountainous State with pockmarked hillsides), my host who was a monastery head, yet a simple monk by nature, interrupt our conversation every 15 minutes to get up and feed a piece of firewood to a Bukhari, the ubiqtous cylindrical iron oven found in every house in that region. I noticed that the Bukhari’s gluttonous appetite for firewood was inversely proportional to its thermal efficiency as most of the heat just went out of in smoke. Nevertheless, thanks to the chronically erratic electricity supply, kerosene being both expensive and strictly rationed, the people of cold hilly regions have no way out but to burn firewood to keep warm. Those living in traditional houses use a hearth; others in more modern accommodation are at the mercies of the Bukhari, both extremely inefficient combustion processes.

 T.G.Rinpoche, Monastery Head, elected Politician, Friend and Guide. 

 By the time the flight landed at Guwahati my train of thoughts culminated with me deciding: Why not design a simple lightweight but highly efficient wood burning Stove that could also double as Room Heater and a Water Boiler? "It’s would be definitely easier than stopping people from felling forests, besides who would go up a mountainside to chop down a tree, size it into small pieces and lug it back home as fuel if they had an easier option."So lets just lessen their requirement of firewood with a bit of modern technology and save a few trees in the process. The grand idea of developing a Tree-Saving-Stove seemed quite do-able for an Industrial Fuel consultant whose biggest professional challenges so far were not technical, but in convincing Freebie-hunting clients to pay up or word-sparring with their indignant Foremen who resented the unwelcome monitoring of Fuel usage or not getting their cut for the installed equipment.

 The Backdrop 
 It became apparent at the very onset of this venture, that mine was a case of wanting to re-invent the wheel. Known by myriad names like Smokeless Chula's, Biomass Stoves, TLUD (Top Lit Up Draft) Gasified Stoves and various other aliases and acronyms, there had been hundreds of efforts worldwide by various NGO’s, government agencies, individual tinkerers and even a few Professors in this field. Most of the Indian versions designed by one government organization or another were essentially mud or brick and mortar permanent structures, the Chinese ones focused more of burning coal. Nonetheless, all my attempts in finding a working model or at least anyone who used them proved a failure. Researching the subject online, I learned that several “Biomass Stoves” as they are now popularly known are also manufactured in our country, but even without seeing them or evaluating their performance, the shortcoming of these units was apparent as not only were they atrociously expensive but also relied solely on a specially made Fuel known as Biomass Pellets. Made from compressed sawdust, wood waste or rice husk these pellets were reasonably cheap ex-factory, but appreciate 200-300% in price by the time they reach the retailer filled in a sack and acquiring a Brand name. There are also the Rice Husk Stoves, enjoying reasonable success in commercial establishments, large, heavy and requiring a power source in the form of electricity or a battery to drive a high power fan. Besides the objective was to save trees, where would villagers on a mountaintop get copious quantities of either Biomass Pellets or Husk??

 The first step was to decide on the working principle of the proposed Stove, the two rival proven concepts were Gasifier and Rocket Stoves. In the first, the fuel first undergoes Pyrolysis or reduction by extreme heat and low oxygen in a reactor core into a combustible wood-gas which is burned at the mouth of the stove in what is essentially a dual stage combustion process. Gasifier stoves are lightweight, cleaner burning and flexible in terms of fuel, but are of complex construction and if not properly designed didn't’t reduce all the fuel to ash and produced charcoal instead. Extremely popular in Africa, the so-called Rocket Stove on the other hand is a direct combustion design where the firewood is burned at the bottom of a specially made ceramic or other refractory material cylindrical retort. These were much easier to construct but are heavy and could only use firewood as fuel. Thus after analyzing most of the existing designs, their underlying principles as well as their strengths and weakness, and business strategies of the entrepreneurs, it was relatively easy to decide the desired characteristics of my yet to be designed Stove. Achieving it all was a different question altogether. The Objectives: 1. Save Trees by reducing firewood consumption through efficient combustion. 2. Reduce the backbreaking work of chopping and lugging firewood. 3. Design a stove affordable enough for even the poorest people.

 The Design Criteria: 
1. Burns any Biomass from twigs to coconut and betel leaf stems, wood waste, firewood and even pellets provided they are available.
 2. Stainless Steel construction for robustness and long-life.
 3. Working on a Gasifier principle to be lightweight have and multi fuel capability. 4. Modular construction for quick assembly.
 5. Preferably with no electrical fans, functioning on natural convection.
 6. Would not consume more than 2 kg of firewood per hour as most Shoukas(Chulas) in commercial establishments use between 3-6 kg per hour.
7. Should emit the least amount of smoke.

 The Prototype( with apologies to Dr.Reed) !! 

 Not wanting to dive without learning how to swim, I first decided to replicate the simple and popular TLUD design of Dr. Thomas Reed, the father of the gasifying stove. Simultaneously, blending thermo-dynamic calculations with my own experience garnered in the world of Industrial combustion and borrowing few design ques from existing models, my first virtual prototype Stove was soon completed as a CAD file.

 A vague replica of Dr.Reeds TLUD designed Stove was the first step. 

 The project almost ended before it started on my first attempt in constructing the stove as I went around with my design to various fabricating workshops. They predictably were just not interested in making a one-off piece of a dubious object and got rid of me either claiming overwork or quoting rates high enough to make me think of buying the next cheap air-ticket back to Goa.
Finally, the solution came as a placid realization that Dr.Reed’s stove looked remarkably like a stainless steel vessel where my mother boils milk. Finding a few right sized vessels didn’t seem like a daunting task and I set of on a quest along the alleys of Guwahati’s Fancy bazar, only to strike Gold(Stainless Steel i.e.,) in a shop belonging to none other than a long suffering classmate from school and college. Girish was sporting enough to have me rummaging through his shop trying out various utensils, buckets and containers with a measuring tape. The same afternoon the parental house was filled with screeching sounds of reluctant metal being drilled, hammered, cut and bend. In approximately 3 hours the first prototype, a vague interpretation of Dr.Reed’s concept was rendered to life by two badly deformed Stainless steel pots. An inverted big one with the bottom cut out, a smaller, riddled with lines of holes inserted inside and entire apparatus was blown by a computer fan powered by an adaptor. Collecting a bunch of twigs from the backyard and stuffing the inner pot, (now properly known as the reactor), the first flame in the practical journey of making the “Tree-Saving-Stove” was lit. The twigs initially enveloped by flames quickly converted into smoky gaseous tendrils that lit up into a blaze right above the stove. The translucent flames were bright yellow and the smoke virtually disappeared once the reactor heated up, but most importantly the twigs, which would have burned out in minutes in an open fire, here provided a steady hot flame for more that half an hour. The first effort despite being a pure hatchet job was a successful proof of concept.

 Enter the Volcano.
 Mid winter, I am back in Guwahati and restart work on my Tree-Saving-Stove after a break of few months. My attempts in continuing the effort in Goa fell flat on the face thanks to various kitchen Utensil merchants in Panjim shooing me out of their stores. This time my purchases at Girish’s comprised a medium sized Milk Canister the kind one sees milkmen lug around or hang on their bicycles and a medium sized Stainless steel bucket. Unfortunately, the dimension of these two were far off the mark from those on my AutoCAD plot, but were the closest available. After a hasty recalculation of the sizes and locations of the various orifices and another two days of screeching metal, the first new Biomass stove of my very own design was ready.

 Christened the “Volcano” thanks to its conical shape as much as a tribute to Meg Ryan in the film Joe vs. the Volcano, the new prototype was visually an exercise in simplicity. Consisting of nothing but an inverted bucket with large holes on the side and a lidless milk canister enigmatically sticking out in the middle, without an electrical fan. The objective was to create a gasifying stove that would convert any available biomass like wood chips or twigs into a combustible gas in the oxygen starved high-temperature reactor core and these gases would rise up by natural convection and ignite into flames upon contact with atmospheric air just below the cooking pot. Meanwhile the preheated taxability air would be forced out by the upper holes in high velocity thanks to the geometry of housing, hence eliminating the need of a fan.

 The first trial of the "Volcano" more suitable for a flare than a cooking pot. 

 The raging tower of flame the Volcano ejected almost immediately during the first trial that same night proved that its was aptly named, but also necessitated a return to the drawing board, in my case the screen of my MacBook pro. The flames were too high and uncontrollable but way beyond expectation for a natural convection stove.

The Flowering Flames of Volcano II , worthy of Meg Ryan herself. 

 A slight modification in the orifice sizes and the tower of flame turned into a manageable flower of fiery saffron tendrils. The basic design of the Stove even if seriously compromised by the mismatched dimensions of the milk container and the bucket, proved to be a success. A 500gm bunch of dried twigs provided a steady medium sized flame anywhere from 20-30 minutes showing a consumption of 1-1.5 kgs per hour, enough for a small family to cook a meal. Its only drawback was that the cooking utensil had to be removed from the it, if a refill of fuel was needed during cooking time.

 The Aftermath 
 A long professional engagement that brought me back to Goa has me parting from the original Volcano and its couple of siblings in Guwahati. The development on the stoves is now shifted to Goa and as this time as I boycotted the unimaginative utensil sellers,  I used industrial processes like TIG welding and made use of  Stainless Steel sheets . The effort culminated in the larger EcoBlaze model. Still in an experimental stage and integrating many of the concepts learned from the “Bucket” Volcano stoves these larger units can operate both in a powered (with electric fan) and convectional mode. Build in a modular system, the EcoBlaze comprises of a Gasifier bottom with several interchangeable attachments on top that can converted it from commercially sized Stove into a Water Boiler or alternatively an ultra efficient Room Heater with a chimney. Though the comprehensive thermal and emission analysis of the Stove is yet to be completed, the fuel consumption using some of the worst quality Biomass like Coconut leaf stems and packing wood pieces never exceed 2 kgs per hour. That's a whooping 50-50% economy over conventional clay stoves.

 The EcoBlaze in a natural-draft mode being tested(to cook chicken curry) in the most practical manner!! 

 On the whole almost two years after conceiving the visionary plan of a Tree-Saving-Stove, most of the aimed parameters have been achieved. Of course, as of now the prototypes of EcoBlaze only sever the purpose of cooking delicious smoky flavoured curries behind my house in Goa, just like the Volcano & its sibling are brought out by friends and relatives in Guwahati every time there is a gas shortage in town. The next real challenge is to bring the technology to the people who need it the most, but that would be the subject of the next chapter of this story, yet unwritten and maybe narrated a couple of years from now..

The Question of Insurance Coverage

The Question of Insurance Coverage

If there is a single aspect that gives me the jitters about the numerous biking jaunts I undertook in the past, is the fact that during most of them, I rode without any personal Insurance cover.
It is pure luck that I rode through all of them without any mishaps and so the lack of coverage seemed almost trivial.
Well, I won’t deny that the thought wasn’t there somewhere in the back of my mind and on a couple of occasions I even went to find out details about the various accident and medical cover insurance policies available. But it was way back in the early nineties when Insurance was strictly a privilege of our Socialist Comrades, the Public Sector.

In the first General Insurance Company's office I visited, the person dealing with Personal Accident Insurances was missing for a couple of hours and no one knew where he was and when he would be back. After waiting for close to two hours and fed up of getting “why are you here” looks,  I went to the competition, another nationalized Insurance company. There, I was ushered to the Branch manager himself,  without wasting any time started his interrogation  as to why I required a  Personal Accident Insurance cover. Of ‘course why on earth would someone want something like that!! To my answer that I was going on a six month long “All India Motorcycle Tour, ( called a Pilgrimage on Royal Enfield- no, I didn’t tell that that) I was bluntly told that their policy could not cover me as I was going to participate in a Rally, which constitutes a motor sport and their policies do not cover motor sports participants. Explanations that a tour did not constitute any sport were met with a stony discounting silence and predictably no policies were issued.

My lack of Medical Insurance Coverage at that time was however my own decision. The General Insurance Companies I had visited in search of Personal Accident Coverage also had Health Insurance products. But both needed that I should have a medical checkup and yes, they would meet almost no claims in the first year. It seemed that the first year's premium was for generating goodwill alone.
Being 25 years old at that time, the idea of having a medical checkup seemed ludicrous, and likewise the prospect of spending money on a piece of paper that would give me absolutely nothing in the case of a medical emergency only underlined my resolve of not parting with my hard-earned cash.
Ultimately, , except for the sheltering hand of the Guy upstairs, I rode out without any coverage of any sort and with his grace made it back home safely. I will repeat I was lucky as even during those trips a least a couple of my fellow riders had messy accidents. One rode into a tractor trailer at night, the other was hit by a speeding car and so on.
And it is now, almost two decade later, when my riding has toned down and the furthest that I seem to ride is the supermarket by the Beach, that I have suddenly become exposed to the world of gruesome traffic accidents and the unholy medical care bills.

Be it junior colleagues crashing at 100kmph into oncoming trucks, truant students from neighboring States escaping here for a quick dose of sun, sand, sex and alcohol(mostly the last), bending lampposts and breaking their bones on hired scooters, the end result is usually very painful to themselves, misery and unplanned expenses to their family .
In such sad scenarios a proper Insurance Cover at least eliminates the monetary worries if not the pain and makes the difference of lying in the apathetic general ward of a government hospital or a decent private clinic.

But now what would constitute a proper coverage for a regular motorcyclist, one who rides to work and works to ride?

Today, with all the private Insurance Companies vying for your moollah , each with an army of sweet talking agents, the smart, sexy female variety and fast-talking male ones , it is again not so easy to hone on the product with the right coverage.
Sure there are lot of sensible Personal Accident Insurance polices around just as there are a number of great Health Insurance ones. But unfortunately no combination of the two, not at least in India and not to my knowledge.
My solution to this was to go for a Comprehensive Medical Coverage Insurance with riders on Permanent Disability and for a Life Insurance Insurance Policy with a rider on Accident and Hospitalization coverage.
And no it wasn't a sexy sweet young thing massaging my shoulders who convinced me to write out a cheque for the polices, it was actually my very sober Charter Accountant turned Investment Advisor friend sitting on the other side of the table.
Well I sure his wife thinks he's sweet.

The Twin Plug Enfield Bullet

When Royal Enfield motorcycle’s designers in Redditch blueprinted the Bullet, their intent was to create a workhorse and so emphasis was placed on mechanical reliability and not performance. As a result, the traditional Bullet engine packs a solid construction, one that can endure colossal mechanical fatigue and stress. Thus it doesn’t take much to garner appreciably higher power output from the motorcycle and one doesn’t have to be either Fritz Egli or have a state-of-the-art workshop to do it.

For starters just knock in an additional Spark Plug and you already have something worthwhile. And no, you don’t have to go for the Royal Enfield’s new unit engine, of the Thunderbird TBTS to have the Twin Spark Plug advantage. As I have been riding one for the past eight years.

A second Spark stands for cleaner and faster rate of combustion translating both into higher RPMs, better power and leaner burning. In fact far leaner and Fuel efficient then the Enfield’s AVL engine.

Coming with a laterally set Spark Plug, it doesn’t take much to realise that the combustion efficiency of an Enfield Bullet , both the 350cc & 500cc models, can be greatly improved by fitting another one, on the other side. An addition that seems almost essential when taking into account the position of the Decompressor valve, which is located on the right side of the Cylinder Head, almost mirroring the Spark Plug and even has same threading as the Spark Plug socket. Furthermore, the only technical requirement for such a conversion is limited to just a bit of innovative machining.

Here, I would advise anyone aspiring to undertake this conversion to first get hold of a Decompressor set ( the tappet cover plate, the Decompressor lever, the cam, o-ring, cir-clip & cable) from the Enfield’s AVL engine, the one fitted in their Thunderbird & Machismo models.

This piece is vital because the AVL engine like most Thumpers, utilises the Exhaust Valve for Cylinder decompression. Here a little cable-actuated lever on the Tappet Cover turns the Cam that lifts the Exhaust Pushrod slightly which in turn depresses the Exhaust Valve a little bit, just enough to effect a little air leak. Coming with same dimensions as the one from the Std. Bullet, the AVL unit is a simple bolt on fit.


The Cylinder Head : The first step in adding an extra spark plug entails removing the cylinder head from the block, unscrewing the Decompressor Valve assembly and heading to the nearest reliable engineering work shop. The objective is to machine off the un-threaded top part of the Decompressor socket .
The easiest way to accomplish this is by taking an inch wide valve seat cuter and fitting it into a drill with the flat side out. Next, clamp the head into a vice and start boring. Make sure to go slow and occasionally withdraw the assembly to blow away the aluminum filings and monitor progress and stop when the threaded part is reached. Inspecting the finished work you will notice a tiny opening on the inner side of the newly drilled orifice. This is the passage through which the earlier Decompressor expelled air into the exhaust tract. Of no use now, it should be sealed tight for if left open it would pass out exhaust gases. A spot of aluminum welding would block the hole, so would a glob of epoxy putty, preferably the one mixed with aluminum.

Having completed the job successfully and being in possession of a genuine Twin Spark Plug Bullet Cylinder head, you have now elevated yourself into the coveted realm of the owners of an Alfa Romeo Twin Spark Roadsters, a Norcroft Royal Enfield or just an owner of a Bajaj Pulsar DTSI(whatever the acronym means). But wait; to actually get the conversion to work, the AVL Decompressor needs to work on your std. Bullet.

The Decompressor: Remove the Exhaust Rocket set and take out the exhaust push rod and unscrew the concave headed adjusting bolt at the bottom. Now you need to create a reciprocal surface for the Decompressor Cam that would be instrumental in lifting the rod, which in turn would, depresses the Exhaust Valve. For which you have to get a 2-3 mm thick HT steel plain washer with a 20 mm OD with the inner diameter corresponding to the threaded part of the adjuster bolt.

HT Steel Washer fitted as a lift ring for the
 AVL Engine  Tappet cover fitted  Decompressor cam.

Fixing the washer on the pushrod adjuster requires another nut, one with the same thread as the adjuster bolt. Trying getting the slimmest one, otherwise grind it into half its thickness. Check photograph to get the idea. As the new nut reduces the gap between the pushrod and the adjuster bolt, leaving little space for the locking nut, it makes sense to grind off about 2mm of the pushrod’s bottom.

Insert the push rod back into the tunnel and seating it on the cam follower, check for clearances so that the washer does not touch the sidewalls. Next refit the rocket arm and fix the AVL tappet cover. After attaching the cable, activating the handle mounted Decompressor lever should have the push rod rising slightly. If at first you fail to detect any movement or it occurs to you as too minute to be of any effect, don’t press the panic button. This arrangement works only when it is needed, i.e. when the exhaust valve is closed and the push rod is at its bottom-most position. And because decompression is caused by a slight leak of the exhaust valve, a near microscopic gap suffices. Slowly kick the machine so that the rod depresses and try again. If there is still no movement try adjusting the cable for zero play. A bit of adjustments and tinkering would have Decompressor working.

The Ignition System : For the Twin Spark Plug Ignition system to work properly, we have to add another ignition coil. But, why another Coil, instead of just adding another HT lead to the existing Ignition Coil? The answer to this is actually quite simple. Yes, both the plugs would fire, but only under normal atmospheric pressure. Once fitted in the cylinder head and subjected to the high pressures inside, the electrical resistance of the air mixture increases many fold and only the plug facing lesser resistance in its gap would fire. A factor that becomes progressively more pronounced in higher RPMs. Having a second Ignition Coil to fire the second plug does away with this problem and in-fact improves combustion exponentially during higher RPMs.

Care must be taken when linking the new Ignition Coil to the existing circuit as a parallel connection results in very weak sparks and a tremendous load on the battery. The connections must hence be made in series where the wires attached to the +ve junction of the existing coil should be detached and wired to the +ve point of the new coil. Meanwhile the new Coil’s -ve point should be wired to the +ve point of the original coil.

A Dual Output Ignition Coil.

The easiest way out is to head for eBay Motors and get a cheap Dual Output Ignition Coil the kind used in almost all modern in-line four motorcycles or in Harley Davidson and just retrofit it in place of the existing coil.

However, as I did my conversion long before eBay motors, I developed another practical solution to this one. Talking two single dry type 12v Ignition coils, I joined them by bolting together their outer metallic field plates and using the terminal of one for +ve and the other for -ve. The only drawback of this setup is a little difficulty in mounting it on the bike as the central exposed metallic part becomes a live part of the ignition coils’ circuit and needs to be heavily insulated. Thus, several feet of fabric dunked in insulating varnish were warped around the metallic part and then covered by soft foam strip and the entire unit was mounted beneath the fame’s backbone under the Fuel tank, attached by two adjustable clamp. A neat compact arrangement, functional as well for it has very short HT leads and is always protected from water.

A home made twin output coil made by joining two 12v Vespa Ignition Coils.

It pays to start the Engine once before fitting the Rocker covers back, that way one can can hear any untoward sounds. If everything is normal, just close the engine and refit the Tank.

To get the first impression of the Twin Spark Plug conversion, start the engine and then remove one of the leads and notice how the RMP falls , refit it back and see how it rises. Once on the road the engine would seem torquier and acceleration more linear and faster. However the real benefit of this conversion with today's high gas prices is at the refill station.

Want to retain the points??

In response to a couple of readers of this blog who queried me about the finner details of this modification, but expressed a desire to retains the CB Points instead of changing over to Eureka's electronic ignition, I recently carried out such a change on my 1992 Machismo. So here's the deal, you can carry out such a mod and all you need is another Lucas Bottle coil ( the small dry units just don't produce a strong enough spark) and a length of wire and a couple lugs and a mounting braket. The following diagram from a 70's era BMW Boxer twin would give you an idea about how the wiring needs to be done.

BMW Boxer's Twin Plug Single Points Diagram 

The rest of the modifications like machining the head and fitting a lift-ring on the exhaust pushrod are the same as with the electronic conversion.

Ungainly but practical location for the second Ignition Coil.

View from the Right Side, note the CV carb, a bitch to adjust,
but with the twin plug combo easily provides
an additional 5 km per litre fuel saving.

One word of warning thought, this setup seems to eat up points  and you better stock up on them. Though, so far I am not having any-high speed misfires  at slow speeds there are occasional misse due to sticking points. Adding a 2.2 uf 50 DC Volt condenser should do away with this problem, but thats for my next visit.

ALL MODS AT YOUR OWN RISK. THIS CONVERSION IS INTENDED FOR DIY-ERS WHO HAVE EXPERIENCE OF DISMANTLING AND ASSEMBLING AN ENFIELD CYLINDER HEAD AND PISTON AT LEAST COUPLE OF TIMES.

 THOSE WHO ARE UNSURE OF THEIR MECHANICAL SKILLS OR ABILITY ARE ADVISED TO TRY EASIER STUFF FIRST.