Commercial kitchen stoves

Hey everyone,

Does anyone know of any commercial models of kitchen stove that runs on renewable energy. The most viable ones that I've considered are biogas (although I've heard that it is difficult to scale, unless you have a very consistent source of fuel), wood burning, and wood gas. I posted this same question recently in a different venue, and someone sent this beauty in response:

http://www.woodstoves.net/cookstoves/kitchenqueen.htm

I really like this model because you can also heat hot water for sink, shower, or heating use. However, what I noticed is that unlike a gas stove, you cannot increase or decrease the heat, you're pretty much stuck on one heat setting. That's not ideal for commercial cooking. With the kitchen queen model in mind, I set out to create a wood gas stove that has a similar concept, but since it is using gas, is able to have high heat to low heat on the stove top. The oven and griddle will be whatever temperature is being conducted from the combustion chamber, but I feel that this is more acceptable, and it may even be possible to have some sort of temperature control, I'm not sure. Also, when the stove stop is not in use, there is a generator for utilizing the excess wood gas in electricity generation. Something not pictured could be conducting excess heat to a water chamber for hot water or heating use.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/93449237@N07/8496787847/

What are you thoughts, would this system work? Is there any sort of tweaking that might need to be done to make it work more efficiently or effectively? Would anyone happen to know anyone who could design and/or build such a system? Finally, does anyone have any other ideas for renewable energy commercial cooking stove?

Thanks!

As far as wood burning stoves go no, you do not have the ability to control the heat like you do on a "modern" stove. The thing is, the whole cooking surface is not the same temperature. Simply put, more heat closer to the firebox and cooler areas away from it. Only way to cook on one is, in my opinion, by experience and just learning where to move the pan to get the type of heat you need at the time. Think less about cooking on a stove with actual burners and more like cooking over live flame.

And in my opinion it's very usable once you earn to dance so to speak and the one good thing is that you're not limited to a certain number of pots like you would be with say 6 burners. They can give you a lot of usable space because the whole cooking surface is the burner.

I don't know enough about the wood gas idea for any input there.

Hope this helps,
James

We have one like this: http://www.antiquestoves.com/ashlandstove/index.htm

We bought it from the Amish down the road. It does have a thermostat so you can regulate the heat SOME. But it also is a giant smooth flat-top that has a pretty easy to learn temperature gradient (hot on the left over the fire down to simmer/keep warm on the right edge).

The water heater part is AWESOME, my electric water heater never runs in the winter.

They are NOT cheap, especially since the chimney costs as much as the stove. But the payback for me figured to be 3 years, and after a year and a half I am pretty much on track.