Cost Improvement Of Solar Cooker Stove

In Nigeria, due to the high price of cooking gases, people still cook with noncommercial fuels like kerosene and firewood. These cause a lot of health problems and also harm the environment. A clean solution to this problem is to use a solar cooker. A solar stove suffers from the problem of low utility and hence takes a longer period of time for cooking. To counter this problem and reduce cooking time, the solar stove is tested with charcoal coated utensil. In this paper, a parabolic-type domestic solar stove is tested for the same utensil with and without cost effective thermal coating. It is observed that the effectiveness and efficiency of cooking is considerably increased by using the charcoal coating on the utensil. Considering the economic condition of the people of the selected area, this method provides a cost effective way to increase the cooking effectiveness of the solar stove and reduce dependency on noncommercial fuels.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER PAGE

TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWELDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT

• PROBLEM STATEMENT
• AIM/OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
• JUSTIFICATION
• PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT
• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT
• ADVANTAGES OF THE PROJECT
• APPLICATION OF THE PROJECT
• PROJECT ORGANISATION

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

• INTRODUCTION
• PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION OF SOLAR COOKERS
• SOLAR COOKING TECHNOLOGIES
• BENEFITS OF SOLAR COOKING
• THE FEATURES AND GEOMETRY OF A BOX-TYPE SOLAR COOKER
• INSULATION

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

• SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
• PERFORMANCE USING NORMAL POT
• PERFORMANCE USING ALUMINIUM CHARCOAL COATED POT

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULT ANALYSIS

• RESULTS

CHAPTER FIVE

• CONCLUSION
• REFERENCES

CHAPTER ONE

1.0                                                           INTRODUCTION

1.1                                              BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

As solar cooker which is also called solar stove uses solar energy for its operation and provides an effective solution for the energy crisis, which is a major problem.[1,2] Besides being safe it is also environmentally sustainable as there is no carbon emission.[3] Fossil fuel has been the main backbone of energy generation in some country such as Nigeria. However fossil fuel being a nonrenewable source of energy is depleting as a rapid rate. This has led to the increased price of fuel in international market.[4,5] This has directly affected the price of energy production, resulting in the increase of the price of energy. Considering the economic condition of the region under study, cooking is generally done using noncommercial fuels like kerosene, dung-cakes, fire- wood. This fuels have a major problem of causing adverse effects on human health and causes diseases like asthma, pneumonia, and allergy.[6–8] Apart from this these fuels produces a lot of carbon dioxide which contributes to global warming. There is a need to find out alter- native cooking medium that is both clean and cheap. Some part of Nigeria such as Sokoto state being located in the tropical region, receives a substantial amount of sun light around the year.[9] The solar energy can be used for cooking using solar cookers which are both simple, easy to operate, and cost effective. Solar stove suffer from a drawback that the cooking is substantially longer than compared to traditional cooking methods. In order of the utility of solar cooker in Nigeria it is ranked at 5th position behind kerosene stove.[10,11]

There is a need to increase the utility of solar stoves in Nigeria. To increase the utility of the solar cookers some coating of acetamide and stearic acid is done.[12,13] Though this method increases the efficiency of the cooker, but there is an increased cost associated with this. Considering the economic situation of the region this method is not a viable solution. Heat exchangers along with the stove can be used but this too increases the cost of the stove.[14] Considering these problems a cost effective way of cooking using existing solar stove is proposed in this paper. To increase the utility of the solar stove a lot of advancements is carried out on the cooker. In this paper the traditional solar cooker is used, to increase the utility of the cooking a novel method is proposed utilizing the cooking pot. Most of the household uses aluminium pot for cooking as aluminium utensils is cheaper. Cooking was done using normal aluminium pot and then using aluminium pot coated with charcoal and the energy and exergy analysis was done to determine the efficiency of cooking. In Nigeria as primitive methods of cooking using firewood is done a lot of charcoal is available in every house hold. Solar cooker provides a cheaper alternative as it has no running cost and no fuel cost.[15,16]

1.2                                     PROBLEM STATEMENT

The available box-type solar stoves are characterized by prolonged cooking hours and inadequate or no heat storage to cater for abrupt changes in the weather conditions (Clara, 2011). On average, the box-type solar stoves locally assembled can cook common foods like rice, bananas, and vegetables between 2 to 4 hours on a typically hot day (Clara, 2011). The cooking time is extremely long compared to the conventional cooking means like using wood fuel and charcoal stoves; which take between 35minutes to 1hour cooking similar kinds of food. Most people have therefore not easily adopted this technology due to the bottle necks.

Therefore, there is a need to design a more efficient solar stove that can appreciably reduce the cooking time and enable constant heat supply through enhanced sensible heat storage.

1.3                              OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

       Main objective

To investigate the performance and optimize the design of box-type solar stove

Specific objectives

• To analyze the performance of existing box-type solar
• To design and construct an improved prototype of the
• To test the performance of constructed
• To carry out an economic analysis of the

1.4                                             JUSTIFICATION

The design of the improved and more cost effective solar stove will encourage easier adoption of box-type solar stove technology due to the user benefits. The box stove will cater for substantial household cooking energy needs hence reduce on carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Implementation of the design will reduce on the time spent by women and girls collecting firewood since traditionally they are the ones that carry out such activities in Nigeria. Certainly the project will enable cost savings compared to alternative biomass sources of fuel.

1.5                                              PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT

A solar stove is a device which uses the energy of direct sunlight to heat, cook or pasteurize food. The purpose of introducing solar stove is to provide a cheap means of cooking that does not involve using fuel, gas, wood or electricity. Parabolic troughs are used to concentrate sunlight for solar-energy purposes.

1.6                                   SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

Water boiled with solar stove is used in showers, kitchen and bathroom faucets, swimming pools, washing machines, Jacuzzis, and other appliances that require warm water.

Free hot water – an average sunny day in Nigeria generate sufficient solar energy to provide all your hot water without using electricity.

Save Money – approximately 50% of your electricity bill could be saved. Using solar stove systems could drastically reduce the size of installed generator sets.

An investment – solar stove system will add value to your property.

Environmental Friendly – solar energy is clean energy. No pollution.

Self-sufficiency – with a solar cooking system you are protected from the ever-increasing cost and erratic.

1.7                           ADVANTAGES OF THE PROJECT

(1) It does not require constant attendance while cooking.

(2) Since food cooks slowly, it becomes more nutritious.

(3) The fibers in the cereal remain intact.

(4) It does not require fuel. It requires only sunlight.

(5) It can also be used as a oven for baking.

1.8                                          APPLICATION OF THE PROJECT

Applications and uses of solar stove are listed below:

1. Water Distillation
2. Solar Smelting

• Roasting coffee and peanut for commercial purposes.

1. Separation of Beeswax and capping
2. Wax melting
3. Sterilization of Medical apparatus

• Grain Sterilization
• Ironing

1. Water Purification
2. Dehydration

1.7                                                         PROJECT ORGANISATION

The work is organized as follows: chapter one discuses the introductory part of the work, chapter two presents the literature review of the study, chapter three describes the methods applied, chapter four discusses the results of the work, chapter five summarizes the research outcomes and the recommendations.