Performance Evaluation of a Biomass Cook Stove with Variation of Chimney Height and Air Intake System

Abstract

Biomass cook stove is one of the conventional methodsof cooking in rural households and industries. Typical stove designs presume inefficient combustion processes along with harmful emissions. Subsequently a more efficient design of biomass cook stove has been a foremost research interest for scientists during the last decades. The study focused on enhancing thecombustion process altering the key parameters of a biomass cook stove i.e. height of the chimney and the air intake port opening. From the study, it is found that height of the chimney and the air intake port opening is very influential on the performance characteristics of the biomass cook stove. For estimating the comprehensive performance of the improved biomass stove water boiling test (WBT) was carried outfor varied chimney heights (95 cm, 80 cm, 65 cm & 50 cm) &varied air intake port opening (40%, 60%, 80% & 100 %). At chimney height of 80 cm & fully air intake port opening, optimum thermal efficiency has been found to be 33.76%, 33.79%, respectively. The highest concentration of CO was identified around 23 ppm during the 40% opening of the air intake port and it minimized to 9 ppm as the air intake port opened fully. Both the values for CO2/CO and indoor air quality were within acceptable limits.