Combustion of biomass fuels in two cookstoves for their conservation

Conservation of biofuels is an urgent need of the present hour for reducing pressure on the natural forest resources and meeting the alternative requirements. In the present investigation a traditional biomass stove, presently used by 120 million households in India, and the Sugam-II stove, developed and dessiminated by TBU, IIT Delhi, were used for observing fuel utilization efficiency. Acacia nilotica wood, dung cake and agro-waste (mustard twigs) were used at a feeding rate of 16.70–33.30 g/min and 12.50–33.30 g/min for the two stoves, respectively. The water boiling and evaporation test was used for the performance determination of both stoves. The maximum thermal efficiency of the traditional and Sugam-II stoves was achieved at a feeding rate of 25 and 16.67 g/min, respectively. Fuel wood for both stoves provided the highest thermal efficiency. The test conducted on the modified stoves showed that if the chimney of the Sugam-II was removed, it gave the best performance when a 1 cm raiser was provided in the second pot hole and one-third of the raiser opening was closed.