Touring - Capillary Stoves?

MSR has been developing a new type of stove that has advantages over existing stoves.

The stove is sometimes called the "Capillary Force Technology Stove System."

"Fuel is delivered to the burner by a Capillary Force Vaporizer (CFV). The CFV is a novel liquid vaporizer, constructed of ceramic layers, that has no moving parts and no need for mechanical pumping or a pressurized fuel tank."

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Does anyone know what happened? -- why this stove has been delayed?

Apparently there are some other designs as well, employing similar principles or technologies.

Here are some articles:

http://outside.away.com/outside/gear/gearguy/or_2004wrap_1.html

http://zenstoves.net/Petrol.htm#CapillaryStoves
[esp. the small unit that is pictured above the words Experimental US Military Pocket Stove]

http://www.natick.army.mil/soldier/media/fact/food/miwh.htm

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For someone interested in building one of these, I wonder if there are plans available on the net somewhere....

Does anyone know where the ceramic fuel-vaporization units might be found?, or where the components might be available?

http://www.vaporeinc.com/
(http://www.vaporeinc.com/)

Seems people are of the opinion that the capillary stoves are going to remain military only, or that MSR is holding off on development to keep attention focused on their Reactor stove.

http://www.msrgear.com/stoves/reactor.asp

Sure beats mo-gas and sand in a C-Ration can...

It seems to me this stove operates off the same principle as the Trangia. The Trangia, in comparison, has been around almost 100 years, is lighter, uses a non-toxic fuel (alcohol) and costs around $30 with the pot. The only drawback I can see, when compared to the MSR is boil time: it takes around 10 mins. to boil a quart on the Trangia, vs. 3-4 on the MSR. The MSR, if it's let out onto the market, is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $170 though (that was noted in the 2005 Outside magazine article noted earlier in this thread; it'll probably be more now with the on-going collapse of the US $).

MSR has a strong R&D department that does develop products in conjuction with DARPA. The MSR MIOX water purifying system was developed for military application. One of MSR's goals with development of products with potential military use is simplifying gear and 'dummying' it down for easy field use by tired soldiers.

Capilary action to feed fuel is nothing new- i have a stove with a capillary wick. . .
It looks like the technology manipulates ceramic layers so their physical properties as a unit both draw and vaporize liquid fuel...which is actually a pretty cool concept, but doesn't really do much for the average bicycle tourist or backpacker. Advancements in ceramics technology aren't going to reinvent the portable stove, unfortunately.

Trickle down of this to the consumer market may or may not happen- i suspect they are finding issues with flow rates at different temperatures, and the desire for consumer stoves to simmer as well as stoke.

When I was testing their pre-production gear, MSR was working on a stove that would bypass the use of a pot entirely. I thought this was a neater idea than ceramic capillary wicks for stoves.