Experimental study for energy efficient cooking devices based on solid biomass fuel and its sustainability for rural India

Biomass fuelled cooking in traditional mud stoves is a widespread phenomenon especially across rural India. Majority of the rural households use biomass in traditional mud stoves with low efficiency levels of 10-15% leading to significant indoor air pollution which is detrimental to the health and also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions leading to climate change.With the ceaseless increase in energy demand over the years, along with rapid depletion of conventional sources of fuel, it has become the need of the hour to search for alternative energy sources which can meet the energy needs in the coming future. Apart from this, the key impetus for searching new energy avenues is the 3Es'; economic development, energy security and environmental sustainability. With extensive research and development activities across the world over the last two decades, researchers were able to design and develop energy efficient cook stove technologies. Higher heat utilization in modern devices based on biomass gasification technologies with higher thermal energy have also been devised. India also has successfully implemented many of these technologies.

The present study is a modest attempt towards experimental study in lab backed with field work for energy efficient cooking devices based on solid biomass fuel. It is designed as a comparative study of these energy efficient cook stoves as opposed to traditional cook stoves in terms of their thermal efficiencies, speed of cooking, fuel consumption, and adaptation barrier. It will finally help in assessing the sustainability of such new technology interventions particularly for rural areas.