[Stoves] Comparison fuel consumption

Sun Apr 16 12:44:48 CDT 2017

Pick a circumstance. Apply your contextual analysis. And, show how you would develop a “usable stove.” You will find that there are several “usable stoves” to choose from, thanks to the work of people in this stoves community.   

At ETHOS 2017, Verena Brinkman, GIZ, presented a comprehensive framework for evaluating stoves and their use. The framework is work in progress and includes many individual factors such as the stove performance metrics you cite. It attempts to relate them to specific circumstances. The challenge is how to apply the contextual framework to making decisions about stove development and applications. In some areas people now have many different stoves to choose from. In more desperate circumstances they have only what donor agencies can offer. There are many usable stoves for different contexts. They can always be improved but the production, distribution and use is often compromised by other “contextual” factors outside the control of stove developers. 

We have an impressive amount of information about the people, their environment, cooking fuels and devices of all kinds, the emissions and the health impacts in their circumstances. Through their largely volunteer efforts and with the assistance of government and private resources the stoves community has improved millions of lives while living and working in “context”. Many improvements are made by collective creativity at the local level. While we may not be able to make direct correlations of improvements to specific diseases, any number of people in the stoves community can point to cases where health has improved, trauma has declined, and household energy expenditures have been reduced. Stoves volunteers have also improved access to potable water, food security and other health related services.            

Discussions at stoves gatherings are all about context and will continue to be as new solutions evolve. Context definition has improved in both metrics and complexity in the more than 50 years. When I first became involved we had “séances” in huts around cooks imagining ways to improve their circumstances. Aid workers and sociologists who lived in villages and barrios carefully documented observations over time. Eventually researchers built models of air and gas flows in homes. Stoves were developed and efforts were made to develop and improve methods for testing the performance and emissions of individual devices. Universities and organizations like Aprovecho built and tested physical models of dwellings to validate models and find solutions. Berkeley Air and others have developed sensors and data collection systems to monitor and record when stoves are in use and detect pollutants in different parts of the home and on family members in real time. The long-term monitoring of actual cooking and exposures is showing new opportunities and new approaches for reducing health risk. You will see all of this if you study the ETHOS presentations, ETHOS archives, archives of this list, and the libraries of reports and data by GACC, GIZ, FAO and collaborators, or engage in any of their workshops or meetings.  

Our work is not easy and the technical, social, and political challenges are significant. We can always be critical but I see substantial improvement, especially in the past 20 years. Let’s understand and build on what we have already developed. 

Tom 

From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Nikhil Desai
Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2017 12:00 AM
To: Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <crispinpigott at outlook.com>
Cc: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Subject: SPAM: Re: [Stoves] Comparison fuel consumption

Crispin: 

Just why is "emissions per kg burned or per MJ delivered to the pot" relevant? 

What matters is exposure profiles - presence in certain concentrations over the course of a day or a week or a month or a year. 

Perhaps. In fact, there is very little we know about emission rates, concentrations, exposures, and disease incidence for different age/sex/ethnic profiles in different parts of the world. 

I grant "emissions per kg burned" is a better metric than average hourly emission rates and loads for four-hour cooking periods assumed. But fuel chemistry, combustion chemistry, and air chemistry of the cooking area, surroundings, and everywhere else the person in question moves around, cannot be modeled in realistic circumstances for all contexts. 

Contextual, not general, analysis helps design usable stoves. Your reference to higher efficiency stove with doubled emissions is relevant only for burning in closed areas and bad chimneys. I wonder how many such stoves were used. From what I recall for India, people abandoned high-smoke stoves, fuel savings notwithstanding. 

Nikhil

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nikhil Desai

(India +91) 909 995 2080
Skype: nikhildesai888

On Sat, Apr 15, 2017 at 8:20 PM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <crispinpigott at outlook.com <mailto:crispinpigott at outlook.com> > wrote:

Dear Dieter

Does the Ben Stove have lower emissions per kg burned or per MJ delivered to the pot?

I want to consider how the emissions are reduced. While one can say, 'because it burns less wood the emissions are proportionally reduced' the reality is I expect that the reduction should be much more than that. 

If it burns half the wood with half the emissions per kg then the emissions are 1/4. I speak here of course with reference to CO and PM. 

I have seen, on the other hand, ‎seen stoves that saved fuel but doubled the emissions. I presume that is not the case with the Ben Stove. 

Thanks

Crispin 

Dear all, 

Please find attached a picture for comparison of fuelwood consumption of traditional Three Stone Fire and Ben Stove. The picture illustrates the savings with ICS and cooking with retained heat. Of course besides the savings of fuel there are corresponding savings of emissions and burdens. 

Kind regards,
Dieter

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