• Energy Research

AbstractThe new developments in cookstove design have been made for better usage of sustainable energy and reducing the worse impact of climate change on environment. A cookstove is a combustion device which liberates lot of heat energy during cooking. In the recent developed design of TEG integrated forced draft biomasscookstove, the liberated waste heat energy is utilized for generation of electricity with the help of a thermoelectric generator. A power of 5W is achievedthrough the thermoelectric generator. The generated electricity is stored in a Li-ion battery and used further for running a 12Vd.c. fan, lighting a LED light, and charging a mobile phone. The novelty in charging a Li-ion battery is to run a fan for domestic biomass cookstovefor cleaner combustion. The fan is also used for cooling one side of TEG through heat sink for improving electrical performance of TEG and thus improving the combustion of the cookstove. This cookstove has been deployed in the rural areas to check its usability, viability, electrical and thermal performance under the umbrella of clean combustion.

Abstract The burning of biomass in a traditional cookstove has led to significant particulate emissions and does not utilize the biomass efficiently. A forced draft biomass cookstove can reduce polluting emissions as compared to a traditional cookstove that is being used in developing countries. But, to achieve a cleaner combustion, it is necessary for the household to be connected with an electric supply to run the small dc-fan of such forced draft cookstoves. Thus, a thermoelectric generator (TEG) in conjunction with a biomass cookstove has been developed and deployed for electricity generation. The TEG technology deployed in a cookstove helps to run a small dc-fan even in off-grid areas. Two novel electrical circuit topologies with a TEG are presented here for the efficient power generation and clean cooking. Different types of commercially available thermoelectric generators were tested during the design & development process to obtain the required output. In addition to clean cooking, other functions such as lighting and battery charging (or mobile phone battery charging) are also available according to the user's interest and price sensitivity.

The recent work demonstrates the utilisation of thermoelectric generator (TEG) in design and development of a forced draft thermoelectric generator cookstove (TEG cookstove). The heat energy due to burning of biomass in cookstove is utilised for generation of electrical energy with the help of TEG. A TEG is a device made of semiconductor material converting heat energy into electrical energy. This technology is used to develop a clean combustion cookstove usually for off-grid rural areas. A novel product design has been adopted to develop the TEG cookstove. In the developed design of TEG cookstove, the various topics like design parameters, product technology, materials required including their selection criteria, economic aspects, etc. are discussed in detail along with the power produced from the thermoelectric generator and its functionalities.