Abstract
Apart from emissions and inefficiency, heat generation from wood stoves to the surroundings is another undesirable effect causing health repercussions especially in the small dwellings of tropical regions. The present research addresses this problem. Steady state temperature measurements on the surface of the improved wood burning stove is used to determine this loss in which chimney draft control plays an important role. Experimental results were in good agreement with that of the model simulated using the commercial computational fluid dynamics code. A modified model in which changes were introduced to reduce the radiation and convection losses from the stove to the surrounding regions was simulated. Firstly, the radiation losses from the fire was reduced by reducing the size of fuel supply port. Secondly, a waste heat recovery system was introduced which resulted in lower stove body temperature. This was done by optimizing the use of the draft produced by the chimney.Results of the modified model of the stove showed a reduction of this loss by 12.08%. Stoves currently used under the national project for rural energy development was used for this purpose. Apart from improving the stove efficiency, this development will have a positive impact on the acceptability of the improved wood stove in rural households and also help to further reduce fuel consumption. key words: Heat emission, Chimney optimization, Wood burning stove, Efficiency enhancement and Waste heat recovery.
Highlights
Improved wood stoves have the potential to produce a significant impact on the rural economy, quality of life, indoor air quality, afforestation and global warming since more than half of the global human population depends on firewood for their cooking energy needs
Air flow rate in natural draft stoves which is produced by the chimney effect plays an important role in controlling the efficiency, emissions and heat losses.Mathematical models were developed to study the effect of chimney height and diameter on the temperature profile for wood stoves and results were compared with that of true values and similarity was reported by Joshua et al.[7]
This paper aims at determining the actual effect reducing heat losses in a wood burning stove
Summary
Improved wood stoves have the potential to produce a significant impact on the rural economy, quality of life, indoor air quality, afforestation and global warming since more than half of the global human population depends on firewood for their cooking energy needs. These stoves were introduced in many developing countries with more stress on rural households and rural based commercial applications. Efficiency improvement in the improved stoves and environmental advantages are brought forth Both natural draft stoves that use a chimney for regulating the air flow and forced draft stoves which use a fan for this purpose were developed. Elaborate description of wood burning stoves and their performance comparison has been provided by Raman et al.[3]
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