Development of an Improved Coal Stove for Cooking in Developing Countries

In this study, an improved coal stove was designed, fabricated and tested to evaluate the thermal performance of the stove. The performance of the stove was compared with that of traditional coal stove and conventional kerosene stove. The results obtained showed a better performance of the improved coal stove in terms of cooking duration and specific fuel consumption than that of the traditional coal stove and kerosene stove. The results also showed that the improved coal stove with coal burning rate of 0.15 kghr –1 can handle fuel more efficiently and economically than traditional coal stove, which has coal burning rate of 0.20 kghr –1 . The thermal efficiency of improved coal stove was found to be 42.6%, whilst those of kerosene and traditional coal stoves were 40.5 and 28.2%, respectively.