Thermal Study of Gasifier Based Biomass Cookstove

Biomass fuels have had been crucially important especially for people with limited
access to other energy sources. Biomass energy technology such as gasifier is
increasingly receiving attention as a promising renewable energy source because of
the ever rising costs of fossils fuels especially diesel, and kerosene. Furthermore,
fossil fuels adversely contribute to air pollution and global warming. Gasifier-based
biomass cookstoves are 2-3 times greater efficiency than traditional cookstoves that
use direct combustion method. The gaseous products of the cookstove are also
relatively clean and environmental friendly. The purpose of this project is to
characterize the basic operating properties of a gasifier-based biomass cookstove
using different types of biomass fuels. These characteristics include the stove's
efficiency. All this information is very crucial as a reference for designing an
improvement on current gasifier cookstove. Three different types of fuels are used
in the experiment: oil palm frond, dry leaves and pressed sugarcane. The efficiency
of the stove was tested using water boiling test. Other characteristics such as its
ignition time and time required to boil certain amount of water were also observed
in this project. Based on the experiments result, oil palm frond has the highest
thermal efficiency and the best fuel to be used on Chemaco cookstove among the
three fuels. Unfortunately, the stove did not capable of performing simmering
phase of water boiling test. The design of gasifier-based biomass cookstove must be
perfected to increase its efficiency to ensure maximum energy can be harvested
from fuel used.