Development of an improved sawdust gasifier stove for industrial applications: Fid-Bau Portal

Development of an improved sawdust gasifier stove for industrial applications

Bhanap, Indraneel J. / Deshmukh, Ramchandrada D.

For decades and even today (though comparatively less), many people from rural India continue to use traditional cook stoves to satisfy their daily cooking needs [S. Kohli, in “New Initiative for Development and Deployment of Improved Cookstoves: Recommended Action Plan,” Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, The Energy & Resources Institute, New Delhi, May 2010, p. 2]. These cook stoves run on solid fuels, which include biomass fuels such as fire wood, agricultural waste, charcoal, and cow dung [E. Duflo, in “Up in Smoke: The Influence of Household Behavior on the Long-Run Impact of Improved Cooking Stoves,” April 2012, p. 2]. While they achieve their purpose of cooking the food, they also release copious amounts of carbon monoxide and various other poisonous gases. Since these people often tend to cook their food indoors, they tend to inhale these gases, which lead to various respiratory diseases and complexities. This term is defined as “indoor air pollution (IAP)” and is one of the major problems that continue to plague the rural population in developing countries around the world [E. Duflo, in “Up in Smoke: The Influence of Household Behavior on the Long-Run Impact of Improved Cooking Stoves,” April 2012, p. 3], which continue to use the traditional cook stove. Therefore, it has become necessary to develop technologies (more specifically cook stoves), so that they continue to use these sources of fuel before ensuring that they produce minimal indoor air pollution. Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) located in Phaltan, Maharashtra, India, which develops various cook stoves that run on various sources of biomass, which are not only significantly more powerful and efficient than the traditional stoves but also produce lower levels of CO than their traditional counterparts. It trains rural entrepreneurs on how to use it who distribute these cook stoves to the rural population. The stove, on which this paper is based, is the “Vivek” stove developed by ARTI. It is a portable, cylindrical gasifier stove designed for the rural people to carry it wherever they go and to cook a meal for a family of four. ARTI, however, also planned to develop a sawdust gasifier stove that can be utilized in small-scale industrial processes. The current “Vivek” stove is inadequate for such applications that require a long and stable power output, while maintaining low emissions. For this purpose, different design configurations of the sawdust gasifier stove were tested and evaluated. This paper aims to analyze the results of each of the stove design configurations and how each of the stoves performed and to select the most ideal design among them for developing an industrial sawdust gasifier stove, which also serves as the groundwork for the stove to be further optimized.