Control System Modification of a 5-kW Pellet Stove: Study and Analysis

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is a study on a stove burning various biomass, with the purpose to adapt the stove to the variation in biomass type. First, from the abstract, which does not provide specific research results and explain the data trends and patterns; therefore, it is impossible to evaluate the innovation and contribution of the article. Second, the research background is too broad, discussing the importance of burners from an energy perspective and the number of documents on biomass energy, without delving into specific research on burners. Third, Pay attention to scientific expression; the word 'interesting' has been used multiple times. Lastly, the design or the so-called improved of the burner is presented with details, however, no further discussion on the mechanism of combustion is discussed, or comparative discussion with other burner is given. That is to say, how come a product design worth to be published to contribute to the common understanding of the combustion/stove.

 

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you for your review and advice, which has contributed to the improvement of this work. Our replies to your comments are the following:

 

This is a study on a stove burning various biomass, with the purpose to adapt the stove to the variation in biomass type. First, from the abstract, which does not provide specific research results and explain the data trends and patterns; therefore, it is impossible to evaluate the innovation and contribution of the article. Second, the research background is too broad, discussing the importance of burners from an energy perspective and the number of documents on biomass energy, without delving into specific research on burners. Third, Pay attention to scientific expression; the word 'interesting' has been used multiple times. Lastly, the design or the so-called improved of the burner is presented with details, however, no further discussion on the mechanism of combustion is discussed, or comparative discussion with other burner is given. That is to say, how come a product design worth to be published to contribute to the common understanding of the combustion/stove.

We have added research results in the abstract. Also, we have added the innovation and contribution of the article in this same section, along with the conclusion section. On the other hand, we have added new references to documents about specific research about the optimization on burners.

We have revised the whole version to improve some expressions (for instance, avoiding the repetition of “interesting”).

Finally, the authors consider therefore that this work gives a wider scenario of the combustion performance and some ranges where the settings could be implemented, however they did not have the intention to make a comparative with ofher burners, as the constructive and manufacturers details would make it hard to compare for getting relevant results. Nevertheless, we have tried to compare with the literature to obtain basic trends that can explain the behavior observed in this work.

 

Again, thank you for your time and sincerely,

Dr. Sergio Nogales Delgado.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Manuscript Number: applsci-3170531

Title: Control system modification of a 5-kW pellet stove: study and analysis

In this work, the author assessed the improvement of combustion performance of a domestic stove by the implementation of a programmable logic converter for a better adaptation to different biomass samples. The result is interesting and meaningful, however, there still exist some problems that should be settled in the manuscript.

Comments:

1.     What are the current advancements in the utilization of thermal energy from biomass combustion? What related improvements and optimizations have been made by others? The introduction section lacks relevant citation examples.

2.     Why did the authors choose these four types of agricultural waste? How does the type of biomass affect combustion behavior?

3.     At the initial stage, operational stage or the phasing-out stage, which phase has a greater impact on combustion? How do the parameters of each stage influence the final outcome? The authors should provide more discussion and explanation.

4.     What’s the innovation of this work? Strengthening this aspect in both the abstract and conclusion sections would enhance the clarity and significance of the study.

 

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Firstly, thank you for your review, whose comments have helped us to improve the quality of this work. Our comments to your remarks are the following:

 

In this work, the author assessed the improvement of combustion performance of a domestic stove by the implementation of a programmable logic converter for a better adaptation to different biomass samples. The result is interesting and meaningful, however, there still exist some problems that should be settled in the manuscript.

Thank you for your encouraging words. We will try and carry out all your suggestions in the final text.

Comments:

1. What are the current advancements in the utilization of thermal energy from biomass combustion? What related improvements and optimizations have been made by others? The introduction section lacks relevant citation examples.

This work helps to understand and prepare and alternative setting of the mechanisms and the device controllers. Also, more references about the optimization of biomass stove have been included, pointing out the right biomass selection and other parameters.

 

2. Why did the authors choose these four types of agricultural waste? How does the type of biomass affect combustion behavior?

The use of these raw materials were considered as representative of the local crops currently used as biomass suitable for combustion fuels. Also, according to their TG/DTG profiles, they are suitable for combustion. These details, including new references, were included in the Materials and Methods section, like the following:

The raw materials used in this work were agricultural wastes (holm oak, pear tree, poplar, and sugarcane bagasse) provided by CICYTEX (Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas de Extremadura). These raw materials are obtained from representative crops for combustion purposes, with TG/DTG curves that show a suitable behaviour for this experience.

 

3. At the initial stage, operational stage or the phasing-out stage, which phase has a greater impact on combustion? How do the parameters of each stage influence the final outcome? The authors should provide more discussion and explanation.

It depends on the final user habits, mainly on their demand. We could consider as a didactic example 2 scenarios. A) Many switch ON&OFF, it would show a lower yields in terms of the combustion due to the phasing-out stage. B) Lower amount of ON&OFF. It will perform better yields. 

This reasoning was included in the results and discussion section.

 

4. What’s the innovation of this work? Strengthening this aspect in both the abstract and conclusion sections would enhance the clarity and significance of the study.

This work was focused on the improvement of combustion yield in a pellet stove by using a programmable logic controller (PLC). The innovation lies in the capability of the stove to adapt to different kinds on biomass, which has not been widely covered in the literature. Moreover, the use of PLC allows a higher precision when controlling pellet supply and air flow, resulting in more efficient combustion with lower CO emissions. This approach offers a direct implementation to improve commercial devices, making them more efficient and sustainable.

We have strengthened this aspect in the abstract and conclusion section.

 

Again, thank you for your help and sincerely,

Dr. Sergio Nogales Delgado.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

no comments

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The author addressed the comments well, it can be accepted in the current version.