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Reducing health impacts of biomass burning for cooking—the need for cookstove performance testing

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Abstract

Biomass is a renewable energy source that is routinely used for cooking in the developing world, especially in rural areas. The World Health Organization estimates that about 2.5 billion people globally rely on biomass, such as wood, agricultural waste and animal dung to meet their energy needs for cooking utilising traditional low-efficiency cookstoves. However, certain human health risks are associated with the inhalation of off-gases resulting from the indoor use of biomass for cooking, especially for women and children who spend more of their time at home. On the other hand, use of energy-efficient cookstoves is considered to reduce those risks. Thus, qualitative and quantitative measurements of cookstove performance are necessary in order to make different stoves and different cooking processes comparable. The aim of this paper is the presentation of the current situation regarding biomass use for cooking with emphasis placed on the developing world, the brief of the adverse health impacts of biomass burning based on the review of literature, the presentation of the merits of improved efficiency cookstoves and to highlight the need for stove performance tests. The demand of different types of biomass is not likely to change in the near future in the developing world since biomass is readily available and cheap. Thus, the efforts to improve household air quality must concentrate on improving cookstoves efficiency and ventilation of the flue gases outdoors. Programmes for the improvement of the cookstoves efficiency in the developing world should be part of the development agenda.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Home Economics and Ecology, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece

    Konstadinos Abeliotis

  2. Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Section Household and Appliance Technology, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University, Bonn, Germany

    Christiane Pakula

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  1. Konstadinos Abeliotis
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  2. Christiane Pakula
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Correspondence to Konstadinos Abeliotis.

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Abeliotis, K., Pakula, C. Reducing health impacts of biomass burning for cooking—the need for cookstove performance testing. Energy Efficiency 6, 585–594 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-013-9193-y

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