LAUSR

Abstract In Colombia, about 1.6 million of families cook their meals with biomass using 3-Stone fire stoves whose efficiency is between 8 and 12%. In this work, an improved biomass cookstove (IBCS) that works under combustion regimes, reaching a target efficiency of 20%, is designed and developed. The IBCS has a Rocket-type combustion chamber with skirts around the pots to improve heat transfer from the gas stream to the pots, increasing the efficiency. The IBCS is built using steel sheet metal and structural steel sections, resulting in a low weight and portability. These characteristics made the IBCS to be easily transported to the isolated regions. The energy performance of the IBCS under the Water Boiling Test protocol reached an average efficiency, time to boil, specific fuel consumption, and specific energy consumption rate of 20.9%, 31.6 min, 122.57 g/L and 64.54 kJ/L-min, respectively. It must be highlighted that by comparing the developed IBCS and the 3-Stone fire stove, the former saves ∼8.0 tons-CO2/family/year. Furthermore, the lower fuel consumption of the manufactured IBCS allows decreasing the cost of the useful energy from 5.37 cUSD/kW-h to 3.11 cUSD/kW-h. Therefore, the IBCS might be classified as an improved biomass-cookstove for isolated populations.