Bio-Energy Utilization through Thermo Efficient Biomass Cook Stove for Sustainable Rural Households

Abstract

The thermo efficient biomass cook stove was designed using scientific principles, to assist better combustion and heat transfer, for improving efficiency performance. The goal of a development of a thermo efficient biomass cook stove was to improve upon the shortcomings of the existing improved cook stoves and traditional stoves, while still ensuring lower cost and ease of use. The thermo efficient biomass cook stove was designed and developed in Department of Unconventional Energy Sources and Electrical Engineering, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola (MS). The performance of the cook stove was evaluated viz., fuel burning rate, power output rating, thermal efficiency and carbon monoxide concentration in laboratory and actual cooking test at user’s site. The thermal efficiency of the thermo efficient biomass cook stove was found to be 31.34%, which was 20.56% higher than traditional biomass mud cook stove. It saved 39% cooking time over a traditional biomass cook stove. The CO concentration in flue gas emit by the thermo efficient cook stove was found to be 2.97g/MJ, whereas, the CO concentration was found to be 73.15% higher in traditional biomass mud stove cook stove than that of the thermo efficient cook stove. The cook stove is a relatively clean burning device, fuel efficient and easy to operate. User friendly and low cost thermo efficient biomass cook stove is recommended for cooking in rural households using cotton stalk (bioenergy) as fuel. From the study, it reveals that use of thermo efficient cook stove would be perspective for rural households over the conventional cook stove.