Efficiency of African charcoal burning stove

Abstract

Fuelwood accounts for most of the domestic energy use in the Third World. In East Africa the use of charcoal especially in urban centres has continued though threatened by social factors such as deforestation. The typical East African metal charcoal stove has been studied with emphasis on its efficiency and pollutant emission. The study has brought to better focus the very low performance figures and the dangerously high pollutant emissions by the stove. The study consisted of: i. Continuous flue gas monitoring which was achieved by positioning the stove in a specially constructed enclosure allowing sampling of the flue gases before dillution with the surrounding air. ii. Temperature monitoring of various .. posi tions both on and off the stove to assess the heat energy distribution. Following lighting up concentrations of over 3% CO and 8% CO were recorded each time. These concentrations reduced to about half the above values within 10 minutes though for up to 30 minutes the concentrations were still1\3 times above the.:poisonous ., threshold limit based on normal air. changes -wi thin an occupied room