Improved Cook Stove(ICS)

The Cook Stove is a device that helps to convert biomass fuels to energy which is used for cooking for anyone. Cook stove is used for making foods especially i.e. indirectly helps to generate energy. It is easy to use. The Cook Stove uses different types of fuel(biomass) like wood, husk, etc. having different calorific values (KJ/KG). It is one of the good example of Traditional Technology as well as Indigenous Technology.

 

There are different types of cook stoves which we have been using from our accentor era. Cook Stoves which we used in the past were Traditional Cook Stoves. Villagers are the one who use this device even though it has consumed a lots of time but it is cheap than LPG and Electricity and need no vast complicated knowledge to use and safer than others as well . Now with the advent of science and technology research is going on to improve its efficiency. The Tradition cook stove is now being modified to the Improved Cook Stove. It consumes less fuel and as well as it takes less time to cook, some are portable type and emit less smoke.

In Nepal different researches are being carried out to improve the efficiency of Cook Stove. The actively working body of Nepal Government is AEPC(Alternative Energy Promotion Center) which is located in Kumaltar, Lalitpur. The different model approved by the AEPC are two rockets model, one institutional model and Gasifier (Indian model) model and  local fabricated rocket model.

The trend of cook stove which we have been using are three stone cook stove, three rod stand stove which have full burning capacity but not effective. Then 2 pots stove with metallic or mud was introduced with different modification in structure as well as efficiency. Likewise the rocket stove was introduce with different modification.

The general structure of the cook stove are the fuel injected(feedstock) part and utensil holder(Containment) consists of combustion chamber, baffle, grates, chimney(depend on type).

There are many companies that manufacture cook stove in the world and nowadays Improved Cook Stove over traditional cook stove is flourishing. 

   The Renewable Energy Test Station is the Test Station which is working to test the efficiency of different cook stoves before providing any subsidy to the manufacturer. To test the cook stove it performs the Water Boiling Test (WBT) and emission test using (DAQ) Data Acquisition Device, which is on the support of U.S.A. The DAQ has different sensors like CO, CO2 and PM sensor and Safety Test. The Magnehelic device measure the pressure of emission of gas in term of water. All are measure in analog system is converted into the digital value with the sensor and using PC with PEMS software the data obtained are digitized and recorded and used to evaluate the efficiency of the Stove.

The Water Boiling Test includes three stages Test, they are One is Cold Start, second is Hot Start and the third is Simmering. According to the lab test done in normal temperature the thermal efficiency of the Simmering has highest efficiency(not consider) than hot and then cold start. There are nine tests that should be passed by the one cook stove to get subsidy from AEPC. The subsidy given by the AEPC is 50%. The nine test are

   High power thermal efficiency (%)

 Low power thermal efficiency(MJ/min/L)

      High power CO(g/MJ_d)

      Low power CO(g/min/L)

      High power PM(mg/MJ_d)

      Low power PM(mg/min/L)

      Indoor Emission CO(g/min)

      Indoor Emission PM(mg/min)

     Safety

S.N	Performance Matrices (value)	Units	Interim Benchmark (standard)
1	High Power Thermal Efficiency *	%	25
2	Low Power Specific Consumption	MJ/min/L	0.039
3	High Power CO *	g/MJd	11
4	Low Power CO	g/min/L	0.13
5	High Power PM *	mg/MJd	386
6	Low Power PM	mg/min/L	4
7	Indoor Emissions CO *	g/min	0.62
8	Indoor Emissions PM *	mg/min	17
9	Safety *		75

*Mandatory performance indicators of Interim Benchmark for Biomass Cook stoves for Nepal (AEPC 2014) 

With the support of giz Deutsche Geselishaft fur international Zusammenarbaeit (GIZ) Gmblt AEPC(Alternative Energy Promotion Centre) is conducting different programs in collaboration with RETS(Renewable Energy Test Station). 

With the advent of Improved Cook Stove it would saved the time of women as well as changed their life style and reduction in the forest wood consumption but still the manufacturing teams haven't been successful in achieving enough efficiency more than fifty percentage so its your time to make that edge to cross the limitation in simple word to convert the fuel consumption completely into the efficient energy.