Influence of stove locations and ventilation conditions on kitchen air quality and thermal comfort during oil-cooking activities

Abstract

This paper documented the effect of ventilation conditions and stove locations on air quality and thermal comfort in a kitchen where fish was fried via African cooking styles using palm oil. CO, CO2, PM2.5, PM10, HCHO, TVOC, relative humidity (RH), and temperature were measured using an air quality detector. The position of the kerosene stove (at the window and adjacent wall) and conditions of the door and windows (fully and partly open) were altered to study their effect. Data of the pollutants concentrations and thermal comfort parameters were acquired and analyzed for the background, bleaching, frying, and after-frying durations for the different cases of stove locations and door and windows conditions. Bleaching and frying were noticed to increase the background PM2.5, PM10, CO2, HCHO, TVOC, temperature, and CO by 604–1301 μg/m3, 729–2760 μg/m3, 78–266 ppm, 0.03–0.13 mg/m3, 0.04–0.16 mg/m3, 0.83–8.33 °C and 18–189 ppm, respectively and reduced RH by 1.67–13.33%, for all the studied test conditions. PM10 followed by PM2.5 exhibited the slowest concentration decay. Opening the windows and door and placing the stove at the window area were observed to lower the indoor temperature, PM2.5, PM10, CO2, and CO concentrations, and heat index of the studied environment as the RH, HCHO, and TVOC were increased. Bleaching + frying using palm oil is found to be injurious to human health and thermal comfort (as heat index >32) and should be carried out with serious safety precautions as provided herein.