The great survival candle wax-off *long post warning*

This is, effectively less about survival candles and more about the materials that comprise them. Also I should mention my focus eventually shifted to 'is beeswax really superior, and if so, by how much?'

So this thread is mostly about finding a btu/lb figure for beeswax in terms of heat of combustion.

A while ago someone posted a link to a candle stove by philoxia.com. Here's the link. http://www.philoxia.com/survival.htm
They seem pretty nice overall with some nifty features, like the built in pot stand.

It got me thinking, which got me reseaching. I figured I'd share that information with you. This is a work in progress and I am not a chemist, so please bear with me. There are alot of facts and figures (just one look at an MSDS sheet and you'll know what I mean) but ultimately there are only one we're interested in:

"heat of combustion" - this is the amount of energy the candle outputs using calorimetry.
A few others I might throw in randomly. Ultimately the ABOVE is the holy grail of figures. It basically tells you exactly how much energy per pound is stored in the candle.

What are the benefits of a candle stove?
- Decent heat output for a reasonable length of time
- light source
- can be used to cook
- can be used for heat
- relatively safe when not lit
- easily portable (i.e. no messy liquids or containers)

Now the first thing before we get too heavy is there are various grades of wax. The primary ones are:
Paraffin (a petroleum product)
Soy-based
and Beeswax.

Now many sources state that beeswax is the hottest burning and longest lasting. The claims are wide but there is nothing that is extremely compelling or 'hard' evidence immediately available. This is because there are many different grades of beeswax. Contrary to how it might sound, the only type of beeswax most people use is 'cappings' beeswax. This is the beeswax used to literally cap off the end of the honeycomb to store the honey.

There seems to be alot of misinformation about beeswax in particular though, specifically regarding it's capabilities. It's generally acclaimed that they do better but no one ever seems to indicate 'why' or provide proof.

There is one specific myth I will address before getting to the more 'meat and potatoes' area regarding heat output.

The negative ION arguement:
There are many proponents who claim that there was a japanese laboratory that tested beeswax and found it
produced negative ions, which supposedly creates better health. I have found no such report. What
I have found is a great dissertation on why this is BS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ion#Beware_the_.22Healthful_Negative_ions.22_pseudo-science_scams:_the_folks_who_sell_them_don.27t_even_know_what_ions_are.

Now, on to the heat output portion. As stated before, it's generally acclaimed that beeswax burns longer.
I could find no specific study of this but I did find this:
http://www.honeyflowfarm.com/articles/whybeeswax/whybeeswax.htm

While at first comparable you can readily see that the beeswax candle is about 10-15% fatter than the other candle at the top, with less of a taper. Regardless though, it does obviously burn significantly slower, despite having a thicker wick (which is necessary for beeswax candles to burn properly).
Really the only way to know for sure would be to take candles of similar weights and burn them. It's good for illustrating the point. The pillar candles supposedly last even longer. You'll also notice that there are NO WAX DRIPPINGS. Something to do with the higher heat of fusion results in a more complete burn for the beeswax. On that note here's some figures:


There's alot of good info on http://www.watlow.com/reference/files/nonmetallic.pdf
Note that beeswax does not list a specific heat (of combustion).
It also has a higher melt point, heat of fusion, density and thermal conductivity than paraffin.

How to check the heat of combustion:
http://www.sciencebyjones.com/heat_of_combustion.htm

I emailed candle makers, beeswax industry associations, chemists, etc. No one had an answer as to what the specific heat of combustion for beeswax is. This is a great deal in part because there is little consistency in beeswax. It can be various colors and grades. It can be filtered or unfiltered.
Bleached or unbleached. You get the idea. Eventually I found an Americal Chemical Society journal from 1920 that had part of the answer..

http://books.google.com/books?id=QQkSAAA...JYyUjTZ8vA8xe8w
hard paraffin: 11210cal/g
heat of fusion: 30.7 c/g

hard white commercial beeswax: 12660cal/g
heat of fusion: 42c/g

Now, it's important to note it's 'hard white commercial' beeswax and 'hard paraffin'. Most paraffin is variable in melt point. It operates on a range based on hardness. The harder it is, the better it burns. So this is basically high quality paraffin.

Also, the hard white commercial beeswax indicates it's likely the 'triple filtered, chemically bleached' variety of white beeswax. I am not sure if it produces more or less output than unfiltered, unbleached beeswax.

So let's say we have a half pound of each type of wax in a typical can with 1 wick.
1/2 pound is roughly 227g.

11210*227 = 2544670 total calories
12660*227 = 2873820 total calories
1 calorie = 4.185 joules

2544670 * 4.185 = 10649443.95 Joules
2873820 * 4.185 = 12026936.7 Joules
1 joule = 0.0009478134 BTU.

which gives us:
.5 lbs paraffin = ~10,093.68 total btu
.5 lbs beeswax = ~11,399.29 total btu

This makes the beeswax candle have a total of about 12.9% additional total output over the 'good' hard paraffin wax. Less sturdy paraffin (i.e. the stuff most candles are made of) should produce even less energy.

So the short answer is yes, beeswax candles do put out more heat based on the above. Further, they have a higher heat of combustion, higher specific heat, higher melt point, etc. They are effectively superior to paraffin. I have too much free time at work. That's about it