Fuel Consumption for Various Dishes for a Wood-Fueled and Charcoal Fueled Improved Stoves used in Rural Northern Ghana

Abstract

Up to 2.4 billion people (approximately 40% of the earth’s population) still depend on biomass as their main source of energy and currently, there are a wide variety of stove technologies and designs aimed at providing better cooking experience to end-users. The study design was cross-sectional, and data was collected between November to March of 2019 in the Kasena Nankana Districts. The study conducted 20 in-field uncontrolled cooking tests designed to assess the fuel consumption performance of the Ace stove and the Jumbo stove. Specific Fuel Consumption (SFC), Per Capita Biomass Consumption (PcBC) and Fuel consumption rate were calculated across a variety of meal types using the two stoves. An independent T-test was employed to determine the mean differences. The results showed that the Jumbo stove averaged 1.43±0.23kg of fuel per a cooking event with a per capita annual consumption of 38.06-274.97kg while the Ace stove averaged 0.31±0.04kg per cooking event with a per capita consumption of 14.6-75.65kg. There was a statistically significant difference between the fuel consumption rate per kg of food prepared (p