Burning weeds

I'm running into the problem that local laws nolonger allow picking wood out of the woods because of fear for tree infections spreading.
This means I'm looking for alternatives to wood, unfortunatly I don't have a lumber yard nearby for sawdust so all I can think off is weeds, meanly nettles, and paper.
Can these be dried and burn like sawdust rocket heaters in a canister or do they have to be processed into brickettes adding extra efford before use?
And how well will they burn in a rocket mass heater?

I know areas that prohibit moving firewood across county lines, but where are you that all wood harvesting is banned? Where is the forest you were harvesting from? Not your own presumably, as it makes no sense to ban managing your own property (not that governments always need sense to pass laws).
Do you have any land that could grow trees near your house? (Thinking of a coppice setup.)

Afraid not, my garden is hardly big enough to grow a few vegatables.
Before taking death wood from woods that are managed by nature organisations is no problem because it was not harvested but an ilness among Aesculus changed all that.
This rule is in effect in most parts of the Netherlands and only effects picking death wood.

Hi Andre; Wow, I have never heard of such a thing happening ! I know nothing about your forest , perhaps they have pine cones ? Would you be allowed to harvest them ? Is there private property you could gather wood ? Wooden shipping pallets are another good source of burnables or new construction or a demolition may have scraps available for the hauling. Good luck Tom

All i can say!

Bloody euroland! In paris and suburbs they've banned heating with wood and barbecues! This is affects about 11 millions people.

I should say Bloody "escrologistes" (French contrastion of escroc which means crook and ecologist: thoses few who think they know about nature, but have no clue. Often obscurantist activists, but funnily enough, they live in citties, when the encounter with a cow pat is very unlikely. Often, they are involved in politics at one level or the other)

Russian fireplaces are amongst the best and largest masonry heaters in the world. Many are fired with wheat straw and other agricultural waste. Corn stalks, sunflower stalks, and weeds from the roadside, will all burn.

Andre, following Dale's idea; if your stove is not built yet; i would advise to make it a batch box rocket. It will be able to be filled more.

HTH.

Max.

Yes, batch systems are better when loose material is fed to a stove. This could save you from a lot of smoke back. Then there's the danger of catching straw or whatever on fire. Something with a lid would be safer.

To make sure I understand right, the advice is a burnchamber that I can put a can in with the burn matirial inside that and a airhole either in the side or botum of the can?
I'm guessing the best result would be with the burnchamber in front of the riser rather then directly under it to ensure the needed turbulance for the secondary burn in the riser.

Andre v Schaijk wrote:To make sure I understand right, the advice is a burnchamber that I can put a can in with the burn matirial inside that and a airhole either in the side or botum of the can?
I'm guessing the best result would be with the burnchamber in front of the riser rather then directly under it to ensure the needed turbulance for the secondary burn in the riser.

Here's two examples of a batch rocket (rocket 177 created by Peter van den Berg)

http://technologieforum.forumatic.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27

http://batchrocket.hostoi.com/html/foto.html

That's even in your language!

Ah now I'm getting the idea, the burn chamber is a lot larger then the air intake and port towards the riser, that way the burn material does not have to be tighly packed like a sawdust rocket.
Just stuff the burn chamber and the restrictions at both points keep the burn under controll while the door keeps everything in the burn chamber and still alowing the riser to complete the secondary burn unlike a system with flu pipe restriction.
It makes sence when you see it, almost makes you think "why did I not think of that"
I can see how you can burn any lose material in that: just let it dry, not even chopping up is needed.