Cook Stoves Research Articles

Geospatial mapping of biomass supply and demand for household energy management in Nepal

This paper presents a geospatial mapping model for assessing spatial distribution and demand of biomass sources for household energy use in Nepal. In the context of rural households, correlation between supply and demand of biomass is crucial for designing effective rural energy programs. Three districts were considered to represent the country's main topographical regions: lowlands, hills, and mountains, where geospatial distribution and demand of biomass are different. The supply potential of fuelwood was assessed using Geographical Information System (GIS) tool, and the potential of crop residues and dung and household energy demands were determined by field surveys and experiments. The results showed that households with secure access to biomass sources in lowlands, hills and mountains were 57%, 50% and 3% respectively. In lowlands, crop residues and dung were extensively used due to lack of forest biomass, whereas forest biomass was extensively used in hills and mountains, with negligible use of crop residues and animal dung. The results indicate that use of improved cooking stoves and biogas was negligible and thus cleaner biomass energy conversion and cooking technologies are needed to achieve universal target of clean cooking for all. The GIS model provided better estimation of biomass energy supply potential in the communities, which is crucial in the design of energy policies for sustainable clean cooking solutions. It is anticipated that this geospatial mapping model is also applicable to the cases of other developing countries, which have dominant biomass consumption for household energy use.

A Review of Cooking Systems and Energy Efficiencies

Accessing affordable and reliable energy services for cooking is important in most developing countries. Improving access to affordable energy reduces effects on human health and environmental influences caused by burning of various biomasses. This review examines the energy resources available in the world and their use in cooking. It also looks at challenges and the ways these energy resources are used as well as possible solutions to such challenges. The major challenges facing the use of available fuels are low efficiencies, high cost, un-sustainability and indoor house pollution that affect many people. The paper has identified that the use of combustion-less cooking, the use of solar for cooking, hydrogen and electrical systems that improve cooking activities and therefore overcome indoor and environmental pollution. Research findings indicate that the pressure-cooking concept improves energy efficiencies in boiling operations. Other energy efficiency improvement techniques in cooking are insulation, containment of escaping steam while cooking and automating the cooking vessel with micro-controllers. The overall efficiencies for electrical induction heating, natural gas, traditional cooking stoves, fuel wood stoves and electrical resistive heating was found to be 90%, 45-60%, 10%, 23-40% and 75% respectively. Induction cooking is both faster and more efficient than gas cooking, while electrical energy systems as a whole were found to be the cleanest, offering ease of control and versatility. The combination of a micro-controller automated insulated pressure cooker and induction cooker can highly improve the cooking efficiency. This is done by cutting a power supply using a relay controlling an induction cooker and therefore preventing the exit of steam. It is therefore identified that zero emission release during cooking will reduce both indoor and environmental pollution significantly.

The Technical Design Concept of Hi-Tech Cook Stove for Urban Communities using Non-Wood Agricultural Waste as Fuel Sources

The purpose of this study is to conceptualize an urban Hi-Tech Cook-Stove (HTCS) design using agricultural waste. Several steps need to be carried out. First, determine the cooking activities depend on the family size and food categories. Second, calculate the energy required for cooking. Third, determine the mass of biomass fuel required. Fourth, calculate the fuel consumption rate. Fifth, design the dimensions of the stove by considering the ergonomics, easy in manufacturing, installation, etc. Sixth, estimate the volume of each component. The result shows that the fuel supply must adjust the flow rate of fuel, air to fuel ratio controlled by a simple mechanical-electric compressor, monitor the combustion chamber visually/automatically, and the dust must be collected/disposed of automatically/mechanically. HTCS must consider the pellets from the higher heating value and faster of biomass with a certain composition of chopped and fibre, also the safety and comfort, such as overheating control, air exhaust control, combustion control, cooling control. For the future, the HTCS technical design concept must be integrated with the electricity and hot water from solar energy by using a hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) collector and urban biogas digester in the development of smart grids and smart cities.

Design and analysis of novel biomass stove

In this paper, discussing in detail on how the thermal efficiency of the cooking stove fuelled by firewood can be increased to achieve maximum efficiency. For this purpose, a biomass stove is fabricated and tested domestically for regular household chores. Unlike regular biomass stoves, a number of design optimizations were made while fabrication to achieve the end goal. Biomass energizes are still being used by large number of populations in remote areas around the globe where the access to LPG gas stoves is limited because of location proximity and economy. Its simplistic design makes it unsuitable to perform any controlled test because they are known to display lots of variability in their performance. So, the other objective of this paper is to comprehend and characterize range of process involved inside the biomass stove and put forth a thorough analysis on all the variables to better configure for future use.

Household air pollution related to biomass cook stove emissions and its interaction with improved cookstoves.

IntroductionHousehold air pollution (HAP) is associated with significant global morbidity and mortality. Newer initiatives including improved cookstove (IC) and cleaner fuels are being implemented to improve HAP effects.MethodsA literature review was conducted for household air pollution related to biomass cookstoves in resource limited countries. In January 2018, we electronically searched the PubMed database for the term cookstoves with no date restrictions. We included cohort, case-control, cross-sectional studies, conference abstracts, editorials, and reviews; studies that assessed the emissions related to cookstove and factors affecting HAP emissions.ResultsTwenty-three articles met the objectives of the review. Fine particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter <2.5 µm (PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are the major HAP emissions. Emission factors are based on the stove and fuel used while the activity is based on cooking practices. Changes in composition and sources of PM2.5 causes modification to its resulting toxicity. Many PAHs and their metabolites released by HAP have carcinogenic, teratogenic and mutagenic potential. Improving ventilation decreases concentrations of PM2.5 and CO in the household air. Few standard tools are available to measure ventilation and continued IC efficacy in long term.ConclusionUnavailability of tools to measure ventilation and continued IC efficacy in long term affect uniformity and comparability of IC study results. Community education about the health effects of HAP and importance of ventilation in decreasing HAP is an important aspect of public health policy to prevent HAP effects.

Performance Evaluation and Characteristics Co-product of Energy Efficient Institutional Bio-Char Rocket Stove

The vast majority of improved cook stoves, built today are for domestic cooking, often used by single families or households. However, there are also universities, colleges, hospitals, prisons, factories and large temporary settlements such as refugee camps or sites of religious festivals where a large number of people may need to be fed. This study was to evaluate performance of the stove for institutional cooking and characteristics the stove co-product (bio-char production) for soil amendment. The stove used as to pyrolysis of woodchip to form multi-face exhaust holes syngas flow to stove combustion chamber. Gasses start to come out from the pyrolysis chamber through the exhaust outlet after 8 minutes of pyrolysis, and pressurized the gasses come out at this time, it start burn in combustion chamber. After 20 minutes the water boiling was completed, the biochar had 4.634 PH value. At 60 minutes pressurize Syngas was stop and gives low combustion. The char was tested and found to be rich in carbon with a Ph of 7.235 and 1.35kg (30.17%) yield when syngas burn upto 60minutes. The results of experiment show that the fuel consumption 8.75kg, and overall Thermal efficiency 45.67% of stove and the bio char produced is good for amendment of soil and it was burnt at very high temperature.

Prominence of Improved Cook Stove (ICS) in Rural Area: End-Users Perspective

Improved cook stove (ICS) indicates improved form of traditional cook stove. It is more effective, efficient and safer to use. ICS is popular in rural villages of Nepal as a new innovation of clean cooking mechanism. To explore the end users views about the prominence of ICS in rural settings of urban areas, this study is conducted as the title of prominence of improved cook stove in rural areas: end-users perspectives. It is based on the theoretical assumption of cultural feminism. It employs exploratory research design and is based on both primary and secondary sources of data. The study revealed that there is high prominence of ICS in rural farm based society in Nepal. Women are end-users of ICS. Through women perspectives, health and sanitation; easy operation; time and resource saver; low maintenance are its major prominence. ICS helps to reduce the untiring busy schedule of women in household activities. It suggests that concerned authorities should make effective institutional frameworks to empower women in their homeland by optimum utilization of leisure time made possible by the use of ICS.

Field based measurement of multiple pollutant emissions from residential coal burning in rural Shanxi, northern China

It was well recognized that the pollutant emissions from real-world residential coal combustion contributed significantly to air pollution and human health, resulting in an urgent need for a better understanding of the pollutant emission factors (EFs) of residential coal combustion. However, field-based researches on residential coal combustion emissions are still limited at this stage. In this study, based on carbon balance method, emission factors (EFs) of CO2 and a series of pollutants, including gaseous pollutants (CO, NOX, CH4, and SO2), particulate matters (PM2.5 and PM10), elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from residential honeycomb briquette (HB) and coal chunk (CC) combustions were measured in real-world cooking stoves. As a result, apart from SO2, the burning of HB produced much less pollutants than CC. The median of emission reduction ratios estimated from Monte Carlo simulation ranged from 2.4% (SO2) to 98.8% (EC) by replacing CC with HB in residential combustion in Shanxi province in 2012. EFs of CO, PM2.5 and PAHs derived from the present field measurement were around 1–50 times higher than those from laboratory tests; furthermore, larger variations were found in our field measurement compared to that in the laboratory studies. This result called for more field measurements to reduce uncertainties of emission inventory estimations. As for the PAH emissions, particle phase PAHs dominated in both HB and CC burning and PAH emissions from HB burning had lower toxicity than CC combustion. Hence, HB is an ideal substituted fuel compared with CC. Previous studies suggested that PAH isomer ratios of FLA/(FLA+PYR) and IcdP/(IcdP+BghiP) above 0.5 represented source of coal combustion, which did not fit with our study well, indicating PAH isomer ratios might not be valid enough for source apportionment.

Energy performance, safety and durability of charcoal cooking stoves commonly used in West Africa: Benin case study

The use of inefficient cooking stoves puts great pressure on the forests, as well as poorly secured cookers pose health risks to the users. Improving the energy efficiency of cookstoves reduces biomass consumption and thus the anthropogenic pressure on forests. This work aims to identify the best charcoal cooking stove(s) in terms of energy performance, safety and sustainability. The proposed approach combines the combined study of the energy performance, safety and durability of charcoal cooking cookers. A representative sample of five types of charcoal stoves commonly used in Benin is tested according to the requirements of the ISO 19867 standard. These are the square cooking stove, the circular cooking stove, the clay cooking stove, the rim cooking stove and the Nansu cooking stove. The results show two stoves with the best performance: The Nansu stove with a total energy efficiency of 27.44% and an output of 0.9 kW and the clay stove with a total energy efficiency of 25.11% and an output of 0.71 kW. These two stoves are made of clay, while the other three are made of metal. The clay stove offers the best safety with an overall average rating of 71.5 compared to 66.5 for the Nansu stove. The Nansu stove has better durability than the clay stove. This study thus contributes to the preservation of the environment and health through the recommendation of efficient, safe and durable charcoal cookers to be promoted.

Air pollution and neurological development in children.

Pregnancy and early childhood are periods with high plasticity in neurological development. Environmental perturbations during these sensitive windows can have lifelong developmental consequences. This review summarizes key findings relevant to the effects of air pollution on neurological development. Mounting evidence suggests that exposure to air pollution, both during pregnancy and childhood, is associated with childhood developmental outcomes ranging from changes in brain structures to subclinical deficits in developmental test scores, and, ultimately, developmental disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders or autism spectrum disorders. Although the biological mechanisms of effects remain to be elucidated, multiple pathways are probably involved and include oxidative stress, inflammation, and/or endocrine disruption. Given the alarming global increase in developmental disorders in recent years, and increased human exposures to pollution, it is critical to reduce personal and community-level exposures through tight collaboration of interdisciplinary and multi-level bodies including community partners, physicians, industry partners, policy makers, public health practitioners, and researchers. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: Exposure to air pollution is associated with a range of childhood developmental complications. Biological mechanisms may include oxidative stress, inflammation, and endocrine disruption.

Common risk factors of Oral cancer

There are several causes of head and neck cancers. These include dietary causes (improper intake of vitamins and nutrients), human paillomavirus, epstien-bar virus, gastroesophageal reflux disease, tobacco smoming, alcohol use and chewing of betal nut, pan and gutka. Among all these, the most prominent causes that develops the tumors of HNSCC are alcohol consumption and tobacco smoking [1]. There are also othe rmany causes including cigar smoking that directly affects the oral cavity and other environmetal carcinogens consistutes professional disease hazards including exposure of textile fibres, wood working and refining of nickel [2,3]. Use of Marijuana also known as Cannabis, Hashish or Hash oil increases the risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma and it is the most common drug which is used legally among the population of United state [4]. &#x0D; Cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption in excessive amounts are the major risk factors for oral squamous cell carcinoma [5]. Epidemiological studies in the world have implicated that there are also other many factors related to diet and nutrition that increases the risk of disease. These factors include low intake of fruits in daily diet [6] and foods rich in animal products such as diary and meat, whereas the diets which includes fruits, vegetables, cereals and olive oil and supplementation with different vitamins gives the protection against the disease and decreases the risk up to certain level. In a study, it is found that the use of wood stove cooking and intake of chilli powder increases the risk. Generally chemopreventive agents decreases the size of oral leukoplakia or the frequency of secondary oral cancers in the chemoprevention trials [7].

Status of production, distribution and determinants of biomass briquette acceptability in Kampala City, Uganda

Biomass briquettes have been identified as a plausible and close alternative to commonly used energy fuels such as charcoal and firewood whose prices are escalating due to the dwindling natural resource base. However, briquettes do not seem to be as popular as would be expected. This study assessed the production, distribution and acceptability of the briquettes in Kampala district. A total of 60 respondents, 50 of whom were briquette users and 10 briquette producers were sampled from five divisions of Kampala district to evaluate consumer acceptability, preference for briquette type and shape. Households and institutions were identified to be the major consumers of briquettes while community-based organizations were the major distributors of briquettes. The Chi square test of independence showed significant association between briquette acceptability and briquette attributes of substitutability and low cost (p<0.05). The Kruskal Wallis test showed that low income class people preferred non-carbonized briquettes. Gender, marital status and income level also cause variation in preference for spherical, stick and honey comb briquettes (p<0.05). The major challenges faced by briquette users in Kampala were; production of a lot of ash, frequent crushing and limited access of briquettes. The producers of briquettes were mainly challenged by regular machine breakdown, raw material scarcity and poor carbonizing units. It was concluded that briquettes have market and are generally accepted in Kampala. However, user preferences need to be taken into account by briquette produces, suitable cook stoves should be availed to users and there is need for standards to ensure quality of briquettes

EFFICIENCY OF A MODIFIED CONICAL METALLIC COOKING STOVE INCORPORATING CLAY FOR OPTIMAL CHARCOAL CONSUMPTION IN KARA REGION - TOGO

An acceptability survey of improved charcoal stoves conducted in some households in the Kara region in Togo revealed that 40% of households use the clay cookestove and 30% the conical cookestove. Unfortunately the configuration of the clay stove requires permanent maintenance. To combine the advantages of the two both types of stoves widely used, a modified conical cookestove model integrating clay with an optimized thickness of 4 centimeters is proposed and tested. The procedure used is similar to that proposed by a group of experts for the Household Energy and Health Program of the Shell Foundation. The results showed that thermal efficiency of modified conical cookestove is improved about 17.35% relatively to conical cooking stove but compared to the clay cookestove, the improvement about 5.18% only is reported. The specific consumption of the modified conical stove save 2.76% of charcoal relatively to conical cookestove while over consumption of 2.62% is reported relatively to the clay cooking stove. The study found that the modified conical cookestove offer an alternative to replace the clay cooking stove and can solve the problem of maintenance and durability. Modified conical cookestove or clay cookestove is suitable for long cooking while the conical cooking stove is better for short cooking.

A case study of improved cook stoves in primate conservation from Democratic Republic of Congo.

Human communities living near nonhuman primate habitats often depend on wood from forests for their energy needs. Improving the efficiency of local cook stoves is a potential "win-win" solution that is commonly promoted to protect forests and improve human health and development. Despite the popularity of improved stove projects in primate conservation, few outcomes have been formally published. As a result, it is currently unclear whether this approach is a wise investment of limited conservation funds. This paper describes a pilot study conducted by the Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center to evaluate the potential for using improved stoves for the conservation of an important habitat for Grauer's gorillas and chimpanzees in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Community surveys and observations of human forest use revealed a heavy local reliance on forest-derived wood. Wood was the main source of fuel used in households, the most highly valued forest resource, and the primary resource extracted during forest observations. It was primarily collected by women and children. The use of traditional, inefficient three-stone hearths for cooking was also widespread. A 2-year campaign using a community-based social marketing approach resulted in an increase in improved stove installations from 18% to 78% of households in one village. After stove adoption, weekly household wood consumption was reduced by half. Campaign elements that showed promise include promotion using women's networks and intensive follow-up assessment and support. We conclude that, if scaled up, improved stoves may be a useful strategy for reducing encroachment into our target protected area but that successful implementation will require a significant long-term commitment with evaluation and oversight. It is recommended that before investing in improved stoves, primate conservation projects take long-term and evaluation requirements into consideration.

Efficiency of Three-Stone Fire and Improved Cooking Stoves using on-farm and off-farm fuels in semi-arid Tanzania

In Tanzania, fuelwood availability for cooking is an increasing challenge for rural households struggling to meet this need. Here, a possible pathway for smallholder farmers to reduce their dependency on off-farm fuelwood is evaluated. We compare the cooking performance of on-farm produced fuels, like wood from Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Kunth ex Walp. and Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp. (pigeon pea stalks) with the off-farm fuelwood species Mimusops obtusifolia (Lam. Sapotaceae). Fuel performance was tested using Three-Stone Fire stoves and artisan-made Improved Cooking Stoves. We conducted 75 cooking tasks, cooking a standardized pre-defined meal with two pots in five villages in Chamwino and Kongwa districts, Dodoma region. The Controlled Cooking Test design assessed four key performance indicators: (1) time until water is boiling in pot A, (2) time until food item in pot A is ready to be consumed, (3) total cooking time per meal, including food items in pots A and B, (4) total fuel consumption per meal, including food items in pots A and B. Compared to the off-farm fuel, on-farm fuels perform better across the four key performance indicators. The results show that with regard to total cooking time per meal, including food items in pots A and B and total fuel consumption per meal, including food items in pots A and B, Improved Cooking Stoves used less time and fuel than Three-Stone Fire stoves. Regarding the key performance indicators time until water is boiling in pot A and time until food item in pot A is ready to be consumed, Three-Stone Fire stoves are faster than Improved Cooking Stoves, thus suggesting that Three-Stone Fire stoves are beneficial when cooking with only one pot. In order to reduce fuel and time consumption during cooking, the results suggest switching from off-farm to on-farm fuels; however, the choice of stove will depend on the cooking task performed.

Numerical investigation of thermodynamic parameters for performance evaluation of cooking gas stove burner by appending of flame shield

A burner of the cooking stove using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as fuel is finding vast application in domestic as well as the industry. A huge consumption has been recorded of LPG, especially in India, and other countries too. The developed conventional gas stove has inefficient performance-wise and needs to be improving by using different techniques.In this paper, an attempt has been made to investigate the different thermodynamic parameters viz., velocity, pressure and temperature using commercial available Ansys CFX code for evaluation of performance for a conventional burner and flame shield burner. The flame shield was developed based on the principle of conservation of heat at the vicinity of burner i.e. minimizing the heat loss. The qualitative validation of flame was found fair in between experimental and numerical results. The results of temperature have been observed of 1745 K and 1910 K for a conventional burner and flame shield burner, respectively. Moreover, the flame velocity of the flame shield burner is obtained more of 0.54 m/s compared to a conventional burner of 0.10 m/s. The overall results lead to append the flame shield for enhancing the performance of conventional cooking gas and save fuel to make better economic viability.

Household air pollution (HAP) from solid biomass fuel and lung inflammation: An exposure study in rural high altitude households of Nepal.

Background/Aim Biomass smoke exposure is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, disproportionately affecting low and middle income countries. The domestic smoke exposure pattern and its pulmonary effect have not been explored in high altitude Himalayan regions. This study aimed to (i) monitor the status of HAP in homes using biomass fuel in one rural high altitude (4000 m) Nepalese village and (ii) assess the short term effect of exposure on lung inflammation.Methods Real-time cooking period exposure to particulate matter (PM2.5) and carbon monoxide (CO) was monitored in 14 households specifically 9 households with improved cook stove (ICS) and 5 households with traditional cook stove (TCS). Simultaneously with the exposure monitoring, biomass smoke sample was collected in cell and tissue culture media (DMEM). The samples were used to stimulate ex vivo human lung tissue in a short term exposure tissue culture model and pro-inflammatory cytokines were measured in the resulting culture supernatant.Results The cooking period average PM2.5 and CO concentration were significantly reduced from 746 µg/m3 (95% CI: 350, 1142) to 91.2 µg/m3 (95% CI: 37.3, 145.2) and 12.56 ppm (95%CI: 6.7, 18.4) to 2.6 ppm (95% CI: 1.74, 3.6) among household using TCS and ICS respectively. A range of pro-inflammatory cytokines were detected with the fold stimulation of ~2 fold for IL-8 and IL-6, ~2.5 fold for IL-1β and ~3.5 fold for TNF-α. However, no significant variations in the levels of these cytokines were observed among the samples from two stove designs.Conclusions The increased level of inflammatory cytokines from lung tissue revealed short term exposure to high levels of indoor pollutants elicits marked airway inflammation. The people using ICS in this region are exposed to lower concentration of indoor pollutant; however remain likely to be at risk of developing airway inflammation despite ownership of ICS.

Predictors of Acute respiratory infection among children Under 5 years in Nigeria: imperative for clean, safe household energy practices

Predictors of Acute respiratory infection among children Under 5 years in Nigeria: imperative for clean, safe household energy practicesBackground Globally, close to 4 million people die prematurely annually, from illnesses attributable to indoor air pollution (IAP) due to use of solid cooking fuels and kerosene while more than 50% of pneumonia deaths among Under 5 children are linked to IAP. However, in Nigeria, there is dearth of local studies on effect of IAP, despite the high prevalence of Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI).Aim This study aims to determine the predictors of Acute respiratory infection among children Under-5 years exposed to smoke from solid cooking fuels in NigeriaMethods Secondary analysis of data from cross sectional studies from Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, 2008, 2013 and 2018, was conducted. Data from 28,647 and 28,596 and 30,713 respondents over the three surveys were subjected to bivariate analyses and logistic regression.Results Younger age (0-11months), household use of solid fuel and cooking inside the dwelling were statistically associated with ARI; thus the predictors of ARI in the surveys were household use of solid fuels [AOR: 1.57 (95% C.I: 1.2,1.9), AOR: 4.75 (95% C.I: 2.2, 10.3), AOR: 5.30 (95% C.I: 1.8, 15.9)] and cooking inside the dwelling [AOR: 1.85 (95%.CI: 1.5,2.3), AOR: 1.39 (95% C.I: 1.15,1.67) and AOR: 1.12 (95C.I (0.99,1.2)]; in 2008, 2013 and 2018, respectively. Lastly, younger age (0-11months) was a predictor in 2018 [AOR: 1.6 (95% C.I: 1.4, 1.8) and 2013 AOR: 1.29 (95% C.I:1.04, 1.6)] only.Conclusion The use of solid fuels in households and cooking within the dwelling are predictors of the high prevalence of Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) in Nigeria. Therefore, use of clean, safe household source of energy, sustainable source of cooking fuel, use of improved cooking stoves, improved air circulation in dwellings are hereby recommended.

80 kW Updraft Gasifier Performance Test using Biomass Residue Waste from Thailand Rural Areas

This research presents the combustion test of Kanchanaburi’s residue waste used in an 80kW updraft gasifier as biomass fuel. Three types of selected biomass were considered: corncob, bagasee, and straw. The 80kW updraft gasifier was designed, fabricated, and experimentally studied. In the gasifier, a variable speed centrifugal fan acted as a forced convection unit, which was installed near the combustion chamber and transferred air volume to the updraft gasifier stove. The experimental results show the temperature in each zone of the thermochemical processes. The gasifier was evaluated by comparing the performance of the 3 different biomass fuels. The average producer gas from the burning of corncob, bagasee, and straw was 2.31m3/kg, 2.15m3/kg, and 2.11m3/kg respectively in the updraft gasifier. The recorded stove running times (h) for were 1.24, 1.2 and 1.05, respectively. The producer gas can be used to run a local cooking stove kiln with at normal rated heat generation successfully.

What a city eats: Examining the dietary preferences of families living in communities at high risk for food insecurity.

Food insecurity (FI) is the lack of consistent access to enough food for an active and healthy life. Community-based hunger relief programs often serve as emergency food sources for families with FI. However, these programs may not provide foods that diverse populations of people prefer. We sought to evaluate the dietary patterns and preferences of families living in food-insecure neighborhoods and utilizing a community-based hunger relief program, in order to improve the utilization of local nutritional programs. We examined the Help Our People Eat (HOPE) community-based mobile meal program. Free-listing interviews (n = 63) were conducted with English-(66%) and Spanish-speaking (34%) participants of the program. Participants were asked about FI risk, food preferences, and dietary behaviors at home. The majority of participants (90%) had children in the household. About 60% reported not being able to afford the type of food they enjoyed. Most participants reported using stoves for cooking (80%). Participants overwhelmingly cooked with chicken, beef, and pork. The most common side dishes included potatoes, rice, and salad. Most participants reported no interest in cooking differently or learning new recipes. A common theme throughout interviews was that families prefer similar meals, but may prepare them differently based on the language spoken. Food preferences consisted of a high intake of carbohydrate-rich meals, perhaps because these foods may be cheaper and easier to access. Notably, new recipes and cooking methods were not a priority for these families, possibly due to the time and effort needed to learn them.