Fuel wood saving through charcoal-making Tlud-d gasified cook stove

Production of charcoal in kilns for domestic cooking has remained to be perhaps the most wasteful practice in terms of its fuel wood consumption. A Top-lit up Draft natural draft (TLUD-ND) gasifier cook stove employing flaming pyrolysis whereby the evolved volatiles are combusted to release heat for cooking and charcoal is produced as a remainder is analyzed as an alternative mechanism for making charcoal. The data required is collected from twelve set of Water boiling test (WBT) on the stove each followed by proximate analysis on the product charcoal. The stove test resulted in an average of 18.05±1.53% charcoal yield along with 18.54±2.73% thermal efficiency. The product charcoal had proximate analysis of fixed carbon (FC) = 86.19±2.38%, volatile matter (VM) = 11.95±2.46% and Ash = 1.86±0.53%. The mean higher heating value (HHV) of charcoal calculated based on proximate analysis was 32.33±0.47MJ/kg. Consequently, charcoal production efficiency of TLUD-ND, the ratio of heat transferred to cooking pot plus the energy recovered as charcoal to the energy that has been contained in the feedstock was found to be as high as 36.41- 47.56%. When 30% efficient charcoal stove is assumed, charcoal from 15- 25% yield charcoal kilns result in an overall efficiency of 7.5-12.52%, while the equivalent value for TLUD-ND gasifier cook stove was 18.33-24.55%. Accordingly, making charcoal in TLUD-ND gasifier cook stove instead of conventional kiln is capable of reducing fuel wood consumption by more than 50%. Adaptation of the stove to field conditions is required in order to benefit from this technology.