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Construction, development and tests of a low cost, high efficiency stove-boiler for low calorific power biomasses

Abstract:

According to World Health Organization [1], 3000000 million people cook and heat their houses with open fires and stoves that burn biomass and charcoal, most of them placed in cool climates with very limited vegetal biodiversity and consequently meager energy resources. For this reason, the target of this research has been to give answer to water heating and thermal comfort needs of living places in cool climates, having in account the local limited industrial and technological development. This vertical heater consists of three chambers: a combustion chamber, a heat exchanger and a natural convection biomass drying chamber. Tests show that the overall efficiency of the boiler/stove is around 80%, with values of efficiency in cooking 30% higher than other improved stoves prototypes, reducing the boiling time 68% and saving 34% of fuel. It obtains 150 liters of warm water at temperature over 40 °C by means of heat recovery.