Abstract
Cook stoves choice and household energy transition are important from the energy efficiency, health and environmental points of view in Ethiopia . It is imperative to understand alternative cook stoves as substitute for traditional cook stoves with more efficient energy utilization, less environmental and health impacts. Therefore, this study mainly focused on five biomass cook stoves used in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The stove were evaluated and compared for their performance by using Water boiling test. Improved cook stoves Lakech, Mirchaye, Flexy, Tikikil, and three stone stove were selected for assessment. The thermal efficiency (TE), specific fuel consumption (SFC), time-to-boil, emission of carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2) and particulate matter (PM) were used as performance indicators to compare the cook stove performance.
The results of this study indicated that, all improved cook stoves saved fuel wood compared to three-stone stove . The thermal efficiency of three- stone stove was 13% while the improved cook stove showed in the range of 25-32% when usesing solid fuels. However, the thermal efficiency of improved cook stoves which use charcoal as a fuel exhibited a thermal efficiency of 32% for Lakech, 30% for Flexy and 26% for Mirchaye also wood stoves 25% for Tikikil and 27% for Flexy.CO emission from the three-stone fire was higher than that of the improved cook stoves. The average amount of CO emission and particulate matter from the three-stone stove were 1113ppm and 613 µg/m3 respectively .While that of the charcoal improved cook stoves were 68.8 ppm and 127 µg/m3 respectively .Wood stove showed average CO and PM 371.5ppm and 373 µg/m3 respectively . The average amount of CO2 and NO2 emission from the three-stone stove were 1.62ppm and 5.8 ppm respectively. Using clean development mechanism (CDM) methodology, the estimated emission reduction potential of wood cook stoves Flexy and Tikikil were 1.11 and 1.05t CO 2 / device / year, respectively while in the case of charcoal cooking stoves Lakech, Flexy and Mirchaye were 0.065, 0.061 and0.058 t CO2 / device / year, respectively. Flexy (wood) and Lakech cooking stoves had a better emission reduction potential of GHG from the rest of improve cooking stoves and three stone stoves. The study showed that improved cook stoves namely Lakech and Flexy were better than the three stone stove for the community in terms of thermal efficiency, specific fuel consumption, emission reduction potential and particulate matter emission .Thus, concerned organization should disseminate improved cook stoves for the community so as to protect individuals from negative impact of the three stone stoves.
Keywords: Air pollution, Biomass Cooking Stove, Biomass Fuel, Thermal Efficien.
