Study and Fabrication on Heat Efficient Stove of Low Smoke Emission

Abstract

This work addresses the rural-based chulha (stove) fabrication with less smoke emission. Many traditional cooking techniques used in Indian villages are inappropriate and cause environmental and health hazards like respiratory and vision problems as well as monetary loss. The main objective of this work is to design a stove that overcomes these problems. Emphasis has been made to increase the thermal efficiency of the stove and reduce smoke emission. Here, the focus is to incorporate proper supply of air to the burning chamber for clean burning and ensure primary and secondary combustion. Air is supplied for two purposes; these are primary and secondary combustion. Primary combustion is held in the fuel holder where fuel is burnt by the direct supply of preheated air. Secondary combustion takes place at the top of the burning chamber by burning the smoke that is produced during the primary combustion. This results in reduction of smoke and also ensures clean burning of the fuel. Moreover, refractory materials have also been used to reduce the heat loss. The materials utilized for building this model are locally available and these are low cost. The experiment has been carried out in three stages in terms of each prototype model where the modification is done on the predecessor. The effort has been made to maintain a proper balance between the efficiency of the stove and the low smoke production tendency of the stove. Experiments have been performed in each of the prototype for finding the thermal efficiency.