Performance, economic and pilot studies on canister-based methanol stove for household cooking application

Abstract

The present study is focused on the assessment of thermal and emission performances of a household scale 1.8 l canister-based methanol stove at different Fire Power (FP). The viability of a methanol stove was assessed by comparing its performances with commonly used stoves, i.e., kerosene wick, kerosene pressure and LPG stoves. The experimental results showed that the methanol stove yielded a maximum efficiency of 63.4%, whereas, kerosene wick, kerosene pressure, and LPG stoves yielded only 59%, 51.6% and 59.1%, respectively. The methanol stove showed clean-burning as the emission of CO was limited to 123 ppm. The energy consumption in methanol stove was 11.6% and 33.9% lesser than kerosene wick and kerosene pressure stoves, respectively and the same was comparable to that of the LPG stove. Further, from the cost analysis, it was observed that cooking in methanol stove was 35.8% and 44.3% cheaper than that of kerosene wick and kerosene pressure stoves, respectively, but was 17.2% more expensive compared to the LPG stove. Further, a pilot study was conducted to determine the acceptability of canister-based methanol stove. The detailed assessment conducted in the present work suggests that methanol can be one of the economically viable indigenous cooking fuels for India.