Abstract
The extensive use of traditional cooking and heating stoves to meet domestic requirements creates a serious problem of indoor and outdoor air pollution. This study reports the impacts of two fuel feeding methods – front-loading and top-loading on the thermal and emissions performance of a modern coal-fired water-heating and cooking stove using a contextual test sequence that replicates typical patterns of domestic use. Known as a low-pressure boiler, when this stove was fueled with raw coal, the findings indicate that front-loading the fuel, which devolatilizes the new fuel gradually, produced consistently higher space heating efficiency and lower emission factors than top-loading the same stove, which devolatilizes new fuel all at once. Comparing the performance at both high and low power gave the similar results: front-loading with raw coal produced consistently better results than top-loading. The average water heating efficiency when front-loading was (58.6±2.3)% and (53.4±1.8)% for top-loading. Over the sixteen-hour test sequence, front-loading produced 22% lower emissions of PM2.5 (3.9±0.6) mg/MJNET than top-loading (4.7±0.9) mg/MJNET. The same pattern was observed for carbon monoxide and the CO/CO2 ratio. CO was reduced from (5.0±0.4) g/MJNET to (4.1±0.5) g/MJNET. The combustion efficiency (CO/CO2 ratio) improved from (8.2±0.8)% to (6.6±0.6)%. Briquetted semi-coked coal briquettes are promoted as a raw coal substitute, and the tests were replicated using this fuel. Again, the same pattern of improved performance was observed. Front loading produced 3.5% higher heating efficiency, 10% lower CO and a 0.9% lower CO/CO2 ratio. It is concluded that, compared with top loading, the manufacturers recommended front-loading refueling behavior delivered better thermal, emissions and combustion performance under all test conditions with those two fuels. Keywords: stoves, front-loading, top-loading, refueling, domestic coal, thermal efficiency, PM2.5 emissions, semi-coked coal briquettes DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20191203.3880 Citation: Ahmad R, Zhou Y G, Zhao N, Pemberton-Pigott C, Annegarn H J, Sultan M, et al. Impacts of fuel feeding methods on the thermal and emission performance of modern coal burning stoves. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2019; 12(3): 160–167.
Highlights
Coal is a major energy carrier in most countries
Consumption of coal and coal-based fuels for domestic cooking and space heating is a major source of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and atmospheric pollutants such as particular matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOX), black carbon, and hydrogen sulfide (H2S)
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 4.3 million people a year die prematurely from illness attributable to Household air pollution (HAP) created by the inefficient combustion of solid fuels[8]
Summary
Coal is a major energy carrier in most countries. Important domestic uses of such energy are cooking and space heating[1,2]. Consumption of coal and coal-based fuels for domestic cooking and space heating is a major source of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and atmospheric pollutants such as particular matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOX), black carbon, and hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Some of those pollutants cause significant human health problems even in low concentrations. It has been reported that low-quality coal is a significant cause of air pollution in China[9,10,11,12]. Raw coal combusted by rural households was reported to be responsible for 26% of urban and
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