[Stoves] A user-centered, iterative engineering approach for advanced biomass cookstove design and development

[Tom Miles]

A user-centered, iterative engineering approach for advanced biomass
cookstove design and development - https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa804f

Abstract

Unclean combustion of solid fuel for cooking and other household energy
needs leads to severe household air pollution and adverse health impacts in
adults and children. Replacing traditional solid fuel stoves with high
efficiency, low-polluting semi-gasifier stoves can potentially contribute to
addressing this global problem. The success of semi-gasifier cookstove
implementation initiatives depends not only on the technical performance and
safety of the stove, but also the compatibility of the stove design with
local cooking practices, the needs and preferences of stove users, and
community economic structures. Many past stove design initiatives have
failed to address one or more of these dimensions during the design process,
resulting in failure of stoves to achieve long-term, exclusive use and
market penetration. This study presents a user-centered, iterative
engineering design approach to developing a semi-gasifier biomass cookstove
for rural Chinese homes. Our approach places equal emphasis on stove
performance and meeting the preferences of individuals most likely to adopt
the clean stove technology. Five stove prototypes were iteratively developed
following energy market and policy evaluation, laboratory and field
evaluations of stove performance and user experience, and direct
interactions with stove users. The most current stove prototype achieved
high performance in the field on thermal efficiency (ISO Tier 3) and
pollutant emissions (ISO Tier 4), and was received favorably by rural
households in the Sichuan province of Southwest China. Among household cooks
receiving the final prototype of the intervention stove, 88% reported
lighting and using it at least once. At five months post-intervention, the
semi-gasifier stoves were used at least once on an average of 68% [95% CI:
43, 93] of days. Our proposed design strategy can be applied to other stove
development initiatives in China and other countries.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20171128/7a2ebdaa/attachment.html>