Design and construction of a two pot wood gasifier stove.

Abstract

A large part of the world’s population about 217 billion people rely on tradition of biomass for cooking with 657 million of these in sub-Saharan Africa (OECD/IEA, 20H)). Like any other developing country, Uganda is confronted with an energy situation of inadequate and unreliable energy supplies. More than 90% of Uganda's energy requirements are met by biomass (MEMD, 2007). Which is often burned in open fires (three-stone) or poorly functioning stoves (Reddy et ale, 2000), such stoves exhibit high fuel consumptions incomplete combustion thus release of smoke, particulate matter and other constituents that cause damage to human health. Therefore, this project was undertaken to design and construct two pot wood gasifier stove which greatly reduce fuel -consumption, provides a clean cooking environment and then gives charcoal as a by-product. The designed and fabricated stove was tested and results indicated high heat transfer from the reactor to saucepan by giving 54, 1% thermal efficiency, fuel saving potential portrayed by specific fuel consumption of 75.8g/liter, reduced cooking time by achieving 12minutes and 19 minutes boiling of 3 liters and 1liter in the first and second pot respectively. The designed and fabricated stove is simple and easy to use; it is batch fed which gives an operator more time to attend to other activities during cooking process.