Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Improved Cook Stoves for Haiti Using Thermoelectrics to Reduce Deforestation and Improve Quality of Life
EPA Grant Number: SU834291Title: Improved Cook Stoves for Haiti Using Thermoelectrics to Reduce Deforestation and Improve Quality of Life
Investigators: Stevens, Robert , Fontaine, Young Jo , Dibble, Aaron , Thorn, Brian , Goulet, Chris , Brol, Chris , Scannell, Dan , Higgins, Dan , Donahue, Ian , Myers, James , Molocznik, Kevin , Poandl, Luke , Labrie, Matthew , McKimpson, Neal , Lux, Richard , Chaijaroonrat, Salinla , Hoskins, Shawn
Institution: Rochester Institute of Technology
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Phase: I
Project Period: August 15, 2009 through August 14, 2010
Project Amount: $9,976
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet (2009) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: P3 Awards , Sustainable and Healthy Communities , Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development , P3 Challenge Area - Air Quality
Objective:
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) more than 3 billion people depend on biomass (wood, dung, or agriculture residues) primarily for cooking. The practice of cooking with biomass has decimated many ecosystems, requires an enormous amount of human effort to gather, and creates considerable health problems that continue to plague the world’s poorest populations. These problems are no more apparent than in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. To minimize the harmful effects associated with cooking, a Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) multidisciplinary student engineering team in partnership with a nongovernmental organization (NGO) is designing, building, and testing more efficient, cleaner, and socially acceptable cook stoves using thermoelectrics and a simple blower. The improved stoves will significantly reduce the need for biomass, which will help cut the alarming deforestation rates in Haiti while reducing the time and financial resources spent on fuel. The enhanced stove also will improve the indoor air quality, thereby reducing deaths associated with respiratory illnesses. The advanced stove will be designed with the intent of assembly in Haiti, creating jobs that are greatly needed to create local prosperity. The focus of the stove project has been to build on recent stove advancements to develop an improved stove for Haiti and other developing nations with the goals of:
- Reducing fuel use by a factor of two or greater in order to turn the tide on deforestation and diminish the time and limited financial resources spent on fuel;
- Creating microenterprises for assembling the advanced stoves to generate wealth and develop local expertise for maintaining the stoves in order to improve chances of sustained stove adoption;
- Enhancing conventional cooking techniques for traditional foods;
- Providing an electrical power source to operate auxiliary loads such as radio, lighting, charge cell phone batteries, and small UV water treatment technologies;
- Improving the air quality for women and children, and;
- Minimizing the impact on the local and global environment by incorporating a life cycle analysis in the design process.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
Three student teams of mechanical, electrical, and industrial engineers were formed in the fall of 2009. The first team’s focus was on researching different testing options for comparing stoves and assisting in providing feedback during stove development for the first phase and future phases of the project. The second team focused on developing the first generation of the combustion chamber and stove body, while the third team has focused on developing a thermoelectric power unit thermal and power conditioning system. The teams have worked closely together throughout the course of the project. The student teams developed a working relationship with H.O.P.E., an NGO focused on development work in Borgne, Haiti. In consultation with H.O.P.E, the teams established the needs of the end customer, rural families and vendors in Haiti. Multiple needs were identified and prioritized to create an effective stove solution that would be more functional than the current stoves used in Borgne, Haiti, while also providing economic, environmental, and personal health benefits. The most important of these needs are: the stove is affordable, cheap to operate and maintain, fits the existing cooking practices and cookware, is transportable, is simple and intuitive to use, and potentially provides electric power generation capability. The teams developed three sets of project specific engineering specifications based on established customer needs and the scope of their particular team’s project.
Several stove technologies including the 3-stone, earthen stoves, rocket stoves, various gasification stoves, and jet stoves were benchmarked to determine key design parameters. Factors that should be incorporated to improve combustion in the design included: 1) creating a good draft, 2) insulating around the fire for a hotter burn, 3) avoiding the use of dense material around the combustion chamber to reduce warm-up time, 4) allowing air to circulate and contact all surfaces of the fuel, 5) metering/limiting fuel capacity, 6) limiting cold air intake into the combustion chamber, and 7) preheating intake air to maintain complete combustion.
The stove design team developed multiple concepts including both gasifier and direct single stage combustion stoves. Based on feedback from technical reviews and consultation with H.O.P.E., the gasification stove was selected for further design development because of the potential for higher fuel efficiency, controlling burn rates, and reduced emissions. The stove integrates some of the recent stove advancements. The basic concept design for the thermoelectric stove consists of an inner combustion chamber surrounded by an outer shell. Air in the channel around the combustion chamber is slightly pressurized by the use of a fan that is powered by a thermoelectric module, a robust solid state device that converts thermal energy directly into electrical energy. The pressurized air is used to force air through perforations in the inner stove wall and into the combustion chamber to optimize the air-fuel ratio and ensure complete combustion. The air passing through the outer chamber also helps reduce heat losses through the walls. Minimizing side losses will be done without the need for ceramics or bricks. Therefore, the thermoelectric stove with its thinner walls will have significantly less mass, enabling quicker start-up times. Quicker start-up times means reduced time spent on the task and smaller fuel requirements for stove warm-up.
The first concept stove being built and tested should provide cooking power of 1,250 to 5,400 Kcal/hr and consume charcoal at a rate of 1.6 kg/hr when simmering for rice and beans, substantially less than the current Haitian practices. The first stove concept was designed to allow for quick variations in combustion chamber height, hole count, and air flow so experimental optimization can be done early in the project. Control of the air flow will provide some control over heat rates for different cooking options (boiling, simmering, frying, etc.).
Conclusions:
Upon completion of initial testing, the team will enter a redesign phase to address any deficiencies in the design. By addressing these deficiencies in the alpha prototype design, it will be possible to ensure that the beta prototype is truly ready for field testing deployment. Field testing will be done with the help of the team’s partner organizations in Haiti. One to two stoves will be sent to H.O.P.E. during the summer for distribution to the households in Northern Haiti. Daily use of stoves should provide valuable feedback with respect to the utility, durability, and desirability of the current design. Upon receiving this valuable feedback from field testing, the team will be able to prepare a plan for future phases of the project to be conducted by future student design teams.
Proposed Phase II Objectives and Strategies:
The second phase of this project will build on the successes of Phase I. The second phase objectives will be to:
- Develop at least two additional generations of improved cook stoves based on feedback from field testing of earlier stove generations and continued needs assessment;
- Conduct extensive field testing and observations of the two generations of cook stove prototypes to both qualitatively and quantitatively measure the potential environmental, economic, and social impacts of adopting the improved stove and to assess the local manufacturing options for further design improvements;
- Develop business plans for the creation of local microenterprises in Haiti and an initiative for broadening the stove project on a national and potentially a regional level; and
- Develop pilot projects in three communities in Northern Haiti.
To build on the success of the first phase of the project, both stove kits and fully assembled prototype stoves will be sent to the H.O.P.E. Tech Center. An RIT team of faculty and students will travel to Borgne to assist with field testing. The Tech Center will assemble the units and document issues with assembly and then provide feedback to the RIT team on areas for improvement with techniques and design modifications for more appropriate local fabrication and assembly. The Tech Center also will distribute some of the stoves to the end users and follow-up with a survey and observations for future improvements. This feedback will be instrumental in the development of a second generation stove design. During the first field visit, the H.O.P.E. and RIT team also will collect more extensive behavioral data associated with cooking by the use of surveys, videos, and direct observations. These data will be used by both the Sustainable Innovation Course and Engineering Design Teams in the design of a second generation stove and microenterprise business concept.
During the summer of the second year the local business concept and second generation of stove will be tested. During this phase, H.O.P.E will collaborate with the RIT team to identify strategies for replicating microenterprise models in other communities and regions across Haiti. The goal would be to identify community-based networks that could be leveraged to support localized capacity building and technology transfer.
During the second year of Phase II, the project team in partnership with the H.O.P.E. Tech Center will identify three communities in Northern Haiti where three pilot projects based on the microenterprise business will be developed. H.O.P.E. will assist in conducting user surveys that focus on both the technology and the business structure stove adoption.
Supplemental Keywords:
cook stove, thermoelectrics, biomass, community power, third world,Relevant Websites:
The working project websites can be accessed at
http://edge.rit.edu/content/P10451/public/Home,
http://edge.rit.edu/content/P10461/public/Home,
http://edge.rit.edu/content/P10462/public/Home.
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.