lecture: sawdust injection burner W. Lowell Baker We learned in high school chemally. At the same time, I was making a istry that if you can suspend flammable personal transition from being a studio particles in the air within an appropripotter to my current life in academia. ate distance of the adjacent particle, and In the ‘80s and ‘90s there was a if you applied the appropriate heat, you growing interest in wood firing. This was could cause a significant dust explosion. probably due to aesthetic rather than ecoThis principle was driven home when I nomic reasons. I was in the midst of the worked during my summers in college use of forest fuels to fire my kilns but was for Pillsbury flour mills in Enid, Oklahopronounced, by some, “not to be a real ma, and while roaming the back spaces wood firer” when I used sawdust rather of Stratford Feed and Seed in Garber, than doing it the old fashioned way. Seduction of the fire: Lowell Baker monitoring a wood kiln. Oklahoma, as a kid. Those dust exploIn 1991 I began working with Potsion experiments as well as the images ters for Peace in Nicaragua. That relationon the news of grain elevator explosions Below: The new Potters for Peace burner design. ship eventually brought me to designing captured my imagination. I somehow the PFP Alternative Fuel Burner and to knew I would one day use the power of my presentation of this newest design at burning dust to do something other than NCECA. Potters for Peace refers to my pop the lid off an old coffee can. burner as an alternative fuel burner (AFB) I have been experimenting with because their source of fuel is often rice practical ways to burn particulate fuel, hulls and coffee hulls as well as sawdust. sawdust, since 1971. In 1974 when my In 1999 I moved out of departmenstudio propane prices went from 7 cents tal administration and back into the cea gallon to 14 cents a gallon, I was conramics classroom. That move allowed vinced that my livelihood as a studio potme time to reconsider my designs for the ter was coming to an end. How could I Baker Sawdust Injection Burner. Since possible afford to burn propane at 14 2000 I have designed and tested at least cents per gallon and sell my work during four different design configurations. The the recession of the early ‘70s? I had done most successful burner is the one I am some experimenting with wood firing and currently using at The University of Alakiln designs but I was looking for a more automated and less physibama. I have built a number of these burners around the country cally taxing system to introduce fuel into the firebox. I revisited the and they have all functioned very well. volatile power of burning dust from my work in grain elevators in In the fall of 2010 I traveled to Germany for the First EuroOklahoma. I had a free source of sawdust that I felt might be a good pean Wood Fire Conference. I began my work in Saal in Northern fuel. I only needed to find a way to mix it with the proper amount of Germany, where I met Reinhart and Charis Lober. I spent six days air and get it to the kiln. In the beginning I had no real idea of the with the extraordinary Lober family in their home and their potheat value of sawdust but I thought it should be significant. tery shop. Reinhart explained his specific needs for a burner and By 1976 I had the physical requirements of a functional sawwe began working on a number of designs. The burner we finally dust burner figured out. My first small burner was based on a Kirby demonstrated at the First European Wood Fire Conference was a Vacuum cleaner blower, some plastic pipe, a few pipe fittings, a length result of much arguing over design details and Reinhart’s wonderof automobile exhaust pipe and a lot of duct tape. I presented my most ful collection of discarded German kitchen appliances. That demrudimentary burner design at my first national sawdust burner workonstration burner achieved an astounding 1410 degrees Centigrade shop in San Antonio, Texas in the spring of that year. Paul Soldner was or a little over 2500 degrees Fahrenheit. in attendance at that workshop. We spent a lot of time talking about The burner we designed in Germany is the basis for the the burner system during that conference. Months later, I found Paul Alternative Fuel Burner design I offered to Potters for Peace. I was promoting my burner as he taught workshops around the country. have pressed Potters for Peace to build a single design that can I will always be indebted to Paul for his generous support. be shipped to any site. My experience building kilns and burners In 1976 I demonstrated the burner at Oklahoma State Univerin the third world has shown that it is impossible to find specific sity and at the Memphis College of Art. In 1977 I taught at Rhode parts. Therefore, each burner is individually designed and modiIsland College and the University of Arkansas. That same year fied based on the availability of local parts and mechanical experI gave my first presentation of the burner at NCECA in Greeley, tise. I have always contended that it would be to everyone’s benefit Colorado. Later that year, I was interviewed by Noah Adams on and most likely cheaper, to have a burner delivered to a site, ready National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. In 1977, because to go. Huge amounts of time are wasted in the field trying to find of rising fuel prices, there was a great deal on interest alternative parts and then trying to explain how the parts should go together, energy and therefore in alternative fuel burners. By the early ‘80s and then tweaking it to function on a specific kiln. The new burner I had presented the burner system both nationally and internationis compact for easy shipping. The entire system will fit into a rect-
nceca 102 Journal 2012 • Lectures