+44-7897-074717Yonas Asmare, Alemnew Ebabu* and Ashenafi Tesfaye
Nearly half the world's population relies on biomass as a primary energy source. This fuel source constitutes to be the biggest in the developing world such as Sub Sub-Saharan Africa. Ethiopia heavily consumes biomass with a share of 86.6% of the total energy supply. However, its utilization in the domestic sector is mostly inefficient and results in environmental hazards, resource wastage, and indoor air pollution. The existing improved cook stoves in the country have many problems such as low thermal efficien cy. This paper focuses on developing and testing of a forced top top-lit updraft gasifier stove by modifying existing similar stoves for application in pre pre-urban and urban households. During design and fabrication of the prototype a main technique of air stagi ng was taken into consideration which is essential in providing uniform preheated airflow and allowing a better mix of air and fuel for multi fuel usage and user friendliness as a design objective. Moreover, performance evaluation of the prototype was eval uated with different available fuels in local areas (like eucalyptus wood chips, cow dung, and charcoal) and different primary inlet area a diameter of 25 mm, 20 mm and 15 mm respectively using Water Boiling Test (WBT) and Controlled Cooking Test (CCT) met hods. The findings from the Water Boiling Test (WBT) show the average thermal efficiency of 36 % for three of the fuels used during the test. For charcoal as fuel, its thermal efficiency exceeds 38%. Moreover, the average time to boil for all fuels used was obtained around 18 minutes. And the outside surface temperature of the stove was 39 39? which indicate it is safe for operation. Finally, this result will contribute a good insight into providing modern energy access for basic needs of cooking applications in the area. And furthermore, adding an air staging technique supports the stove to be used for multi fuel available with better performance performance.
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