Optimal sizing of a solar–biogas-based cooking system for a cluster of villages

Energy supplies particularly in remote and far-flung rural areas are in pathetic situation. Leave aside other needs, most of the rural communities still use wood as a source of energy for cooking. Burning of wood is not only an inefficient method, but also hazardousness for the person working on the stove. People have been working for cleaner and efficient means of cooking for decades. Solar cooker- and biogas-based cook stoves are two of the successfully implemented technologies in this area. Although solar cooker requires no maintenance, the initial investment is quite high for a cluster of villages. In addition to this, the intermittency involved in solar energy makes this an unreliable source. In this paper, a cluster of villages of Narendra Nagar block of Tehri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand, India, has been studied in terms of their thermal requirements. The potential of solar energy and biomass energy has been estimated. An integrated solar–biogas system has been proposed to satisfy this cooking demand. To obtain the optimal sizes of solar cooker and biogas generator, MATLAB codes have been developed. It was found that this system is more economical and much reliable than the other two cases.

[1]  Chandra Shekhar Sinha,et al.  A framework for the financial evaluation of household biogas plants in India , 1990 .

[2]  Vijay Laxmi,et al.  Exposure from cooking with biofuels: pollution monitoring and analysis for rural Tamil Nadu, India. , 2001 .

[3]  U. S. Mirdha,et al.  Design optimization of solar cooker , 2008 .

[4]  Loganathan Umanand,et al.  Optimization and design of energy transport system for solar cooking application , 2011 .

[5]  V.V.N Kishore,et al.  Improved cookstoves in rural India: how improved are they? , 2002 .

[6]  A. Sharma,et al.  Thermal performance evaluation of a latent heat storage unit for late evening cooking in a solar cooker having three reflectors , 2003 .

[7]  Subodh Kumar,et al.  Estimation of design parameters for thermal performance evaluation of box-type solar cooker , 2005 .

[8]  Mahmoud M. El-Halwagi,et al.  Planning Egyptian villages in the new reclaimed areas with regard to accommodation of biogas technology , 1989 .

[9]  H. P. Garg,et al.  Mathematical modelling of the performance of a solar cooker , 1983 .

[10]  L. S. Ganesh,et al.  A multi-objective analysis of cooking-energy alternatives , 1994 .

[11]  Jonatan Andersson,et al.  Evaluation of straw as a biofilm carrier in the methanogenic stage of two-stage anaerobic digestion of crop residues. , 2002, Bioresource technology.

[12]  H. N. Chanakya,et al.  Biogas plant dissemination: success story of Sirsi, India , 2001 .

[13]  A. Mawire,et al.  Simulated performance of storage materials for pebble bed thermal energy storage (TES) systems , 2009 .

[14]  A. M. Jinturkar,et al.  A fuzzy mixed integer goal programming approach for cooking and heating energy planning in rural India , 2011, Expert Syst. Appl..

[15]  Gireesh Shrimali,et al.  Improved stoves in India: A study of sustainable business models , 2011 .

[16]  I. Ferrer,et al.  Evaluating benefits of low-cost household digesters for rural Andean communities , 2012 .

[17]  Tara C. Kandpal,et al.  Financial feasibility analysis of box-type solar cookers in India , 1996 .

[18]  V. K. Vijay,et al.  Biogas scrubbing, compression and storage: perspective and prospectus in Indian context , 2005 .

[19]  Tara C. Kandpal,et al.  A methodology for financial evaluation of biogas technology in India using cost functions , 1996 .

[20]  K.Jatinder Singh,et al.  Comparative study of economics of different models of family size biogas plants for state of Punjab, India. , 2004 .

[21]  M.P. Sharma,et al.  Computerized modelling of hybrid energy system— Part II: Combined dispatch strategies and solution algorithm , 2008, 2008 International Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering.

[22]  Maria Eugênia Vieira da Silva,et al.  Characterisation and design methods of solar cookers , 2008 .

[23]  M. Hussain,et al.  The performance of a box-type solar cooker with auxiliary heating , 1997 .

[24]  S. D. Pohekar,et al.  Dissemination of cooking energy alternatives in India--a review , 2005 .

[25]  Chandra Shekhar Sinha,et al.  Economics of family sized biogas plants in India , 1991 .

[26]  B G Unni,et al.  A novel fed-batch digestion system for biomethanation of plant biomasses. , 1999, Journal of bioscience and bioengineering.

[27]  Morapakala Srinivas,et al.  Domestic solar hot water systems: Developments, evaluations and essentials for “viability” with a special reference to India , 2011 .

[28]  Gaoming Jiang,et al.  Biomass energy utilization in rural areas may contribute to alleviating energy crisis and global warming: A case study in a typical agro-village of Shandong, China , 2010 .

[29]  A.M.A. Khalifa,et al.  A split-system solar cooker with heat pipes , 1986 .

[30]  B. Goldberg,et al.  Solar radiation over India , 1983 .

[31]  Tara C. Kandpal,et al.  Using renewable energy technologies for domestic cooking in India: a methodology for potential estimation , 2002 .

[32]  H. N. Chanakya,et al.  Field experience with leaf litter-based biogas plants , 2005 .