Unique patented technology
The target for the stove development was to create an environmentally friendly and safe stove for both indoor and outdoor use. This target was well achieved in the development of the Fishbone stoves.
The most important unique stove features are explained below.
Clean burning
The burner of a Fishbone stove produces a clean flame by optimally mixing ethanol vapor and air.
The burner contains a venturi structure where the flow of ethanol vapor draws air to the burner.
When burning pure ethanol optimally (just like the Fishbone stoves do) the chemical reaction produces only heat, carbon dioxide CO2, and water vapor H2O:
C2H5OH + 3 O2 → 2 CO2 + 3 H2O + heat
Traditional ethanol burners do not control their air/fuel mixing ratio, which leads to sub-optimal ethanol burning and unwanted soot in the exhaust gas.
Fuel system
The fuel system of a Fishbone stove includes an ethanol container, refueling opening with fuel cap, ventilation channels, and the burner with ethanol vaporizer pipes including a wick structure in the middle.
Ethanol is conveyed from the container to the burner by capillary action in a wick, not with pressure. The ethanol container is a ventilated and non-pressurized tank. The risk of stove explosion is thus negligible.
In case the stove is accidentally turned upside down the flame typically dies out and fuel drips out very slowly through the ventilation channels. This minimizes the risk of fire when using the stove in various situations.
Power control
Fishbone stove contains a genius power control mechanism where the user can adjust the cooking power of the stove.
The adjustment is done with a control pin that adjust the control flame located in the middle of the burner. The size of the control flame determines the rate of ethanol vaporization in the vaporizer pipes of the burner. When the amount of ethanol vapor increases or decreases, the size of the burner flame (and the heating power of the stove) increases or decreases.
In various Fishbone stove models the specified full power is different. This difference depends on the number of the ethanol vaporizer pipes, in other words the bigger the number of pipes the higher the specified heating power.
