Citation:

Champion, W., G. Shen, C. Williams, L. Virtaranta, M. Barnes, C. Christianson, M. Hays, AND Jim Jetter. Evaluating the Laboratory Performance of Pellet-fueled Semi-gasifier Cookstoves. ACS ES&T Air. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 59(4):0, (2025). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c10008

Impact/Purpose:

Household air pollution from solid-fuel stoves is one of the most significant environmental problems that affect human health worldwide. The WHO (World Health Organization) estimates that 3 million premature deaths annually are caused by household air pollution, mainly from emissions from cookstoves in the developing world. Additionally, household solid fuel use contributes significantly to climate change. The EPA ORD (Office of Research and Development) is conducting research and activities to address the problem in coordination with a much larger whole-of-governent effort including NIH, CDC, USAID, State, DOE, and USDA along with many international partners led by the Clean Cooking Alliance. This journal article evaluates the performance of biomass pellet-fueled semi-gasifier cookstoves.

Description:

Pellet-fueled cookstoves are a potentially valuable technology for people lacking access to gas or electric energy sources. This study examines three representative semi-gasifier cookstove models each burning four types of pelletized-biomass fuel (hardwood, peanut hull, risk husk, wheat straw) using the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 19867-1:2018 protocol. ISO tier ratings for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions ranged from 1-4 and 2-5 (where 5 = cleanest), respectively, suggesting that pellet-fueled cookstoves may provide substantial emissions reductions, dependent upon stove/fuel matching and operation, over other biomass-fueled cooking alternatives. PM2.5 emission factors based on useful energy delivered (EFd) varied by up to 25-fold, and organic and elemental carbon (OC and EC) EFd values respectively varied by >200- and ~100-fold, reflecting complex variability in PM2.5 composition. These semi-gasifier cookstoves showed higher ultrafine particle (UFP) emissions but lower bulk PM2.5 emissions. Operation of pellet-fueled cookstoves at higher firepower resulted in higher PM2.5 and UFP emissions and higher EC to total carbon ratios, while operation at lower firepower resulted in higher gaseous pollutant emissions. Results of this work provide technical guidance for stove developers, users, and policy-makers. These ISO-protocol based emission factors are also pertinent to health and climate modeling efforts.

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