Testing Results of the Ecocinai Cooking Stove from El Salvador
Nordica MacCarty, Aprovechoi Research Center, March 5, 2008
Nancy Hughes, Stove Teami International, April 5, 2008
La Disminuicion de las Emanaciones de Humo

Fuel Efficient Stove Programs in IDP Settings - Summary Evaluation Report, Uganda
Academy for Educational Development for USAIDi, September 2007

Introduction: Evaluation Objectives

Around the world, conflict and natural disasters have displaced millions of people. Displaced populations fleeing to settlement camps and seeking safety in host villages often put great stress on natural resources, leading to environmental degradation and conflict with local populations. One of the greatest needs of all people affected by crisis, be they displaced, settled or on the move, is firewood or other types of fuel to heat their homes, cook their food, and treat water for drinking and food preparation. The risks endured (especially by women and children) collecting sometimes scarce wood resources constitute some of the most challenging and serious protection concerns both in IDPi camps and in villages where the conflict over resources is high.

USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDAi) has been one of the key US Government funders of humanitarian agencies implementing fuel-efficient stove (FESi) programs in IDPi settings. The FESi programs are intended to help the agencies accomplish various goals, such as improve food security or decrease deforestation, by reducing fuel consumption. However, the large number of implementers, their varying motives and degrees of expertise, and differing conditions within and among IDPi communities have made it difficult for OFDAi to determine the relative efficacy of the FESi interventions and provide guidelines for USAIDi-funded entities working in IDPi settings.

Therefore, OFDAi enlisted the assistance of the USAIDi Energy Team to undertake a multi-phase evaluation in order to derive “best practices” for future FESi interventions. While the primary purpose of this evaluation is to provide guidance to USAIDi-funded organizations, USAIDi hopes to inform the broader humanitarian community by sharing the results of the evaluation with them as well. Eventually, the best practices will be developed into a series of recommendations and toolkits for use by NGOs, donors, and other groups operating FESi programs in IDPi settings.

Stove Performance Report: Mayon Rice Hull Stove
Aprovechoi research Center, July 18, 2005

INTRODUCTION:

This report serves to provide detailed performance measures of the smaller red model of the Mayon Turbo Rice Hull cooking stove including speed, fuel use, efficiency, and emissions produced. Stove performance is also considered in comparison to a laboratory open fire and the average of four similar wood burning stoves recently tested at the Aprovechoi laboratory. Comments are included describing ease of use and recommendations for possible design improvement.

The Mayon Turbo stove reduces both Carbon Monoxide and Particulate Matter when compared to a carefully operated open fire. It is especially successful at reducing Particulate Matter.

RESULTS AT A GLANCE:

Dry Fuel Equivalent Calculator
Crispin and Nigel Pemberton-Pigott, October 2007

Dear Stoves Testers

See the attached Dry Fuel Equivalent Calculator drawn up for evaluation by our list readers.

There are 4 pages to the spreadsheet. The first is where a test result can be entered. If you only know the mass of damp fuel burned, the amount of charcoal remaining and the moisture content of the fuel, it should be sufficient.

Select a suitable dry fuel heat content from the chart on the right if you don’t know the figure exactly.

The first set of numbers is the actual heat value of the fuel that was offered to the pot. The second sheet is the heat value as calculated by the UCB-WBT method. The Dry Wood Equivalent figure in the UCB-WBT is not used (as previously discussed), but a different formula which can be seen in their spreadsheet by clicking on the cell.

The difference between the two output figures is calculated on the third page.

The fourth page is the two methods plotted in two different manners, the actual value of dry fuel equivalent against the UCB-WTB for a range of moisture and charcoal remaining, both as a % of wet fuel burned, then the relative value of the outputs.

You will notice, playing with the numbers, that when the heat value of the fuel is more than about 20 MJ/Kg the dry fuel equivalent has been under-reported by the UCB-WBT. Conversely, when the actual heat in the fuel is less than 20, that method over-reports the heat yielded giving the impression that the stove has not performed as well as it actually did. In the case of a fuel like rice hulls, the difference is significant. Note that the charcoal heat content should be changed for the rice hulls – see the small chart on the right of page 1.

As always, please look for errors in the calculations. Sorry about the formatting of the graphs – the cells with no or very high plus or minus values get plotted as zero, mostly in order to make the lower moisture calculations more readable.

Best regards
Crispin and Nigel Pemberton-Pigott
Waterloo
Ontario

First test of the Maputo Ceramic Stove
Crispin Pemberton-Pigott, New Dawni Engineering, August 20, 2006

MCS200

160 grams of charcoal boils and simmers 5 liters/CF04 Stove
Lanny Hensoni www.lanny.us July 2, 2006

The CF04 Stove boiled and simmered 5 liters using only 160gr of charcoal and wood.

After several modifications to 4 different prototypes, it only took 150 gr of lump charcoal with 11% moisture and 10gr of wood to boil 5 liters of 83 degF/28.3 degC water in 45 min. That is 32 grams per liter to boil and simmer. At 1 hour after boiling the water was still simmering at 100 degC and after 2 hours the water was 205degF/96 degC. At this point I shut the air control and capped the pot module to stop the airflow and retain heat.

At 3 hours the water temp was 190 degF/87.8 degC and was 178 degF/ 81 degC at 4 hours.

Comparing the Charcoal Burning Rocket and Jiko Stoves (pdf)
Dean Still and Nordica MacCarty, Aprovechoi Research Center, June 22nd, 2006

The charcoal Rocket Stove was compared to the Jiko-type charcoal stove sent from Ghana. 600 grams of Kingsford charcoal was placed in the stoves under the Aprovechoi emissions hood. One test was performed on each stove for preliminary studies. The stoves are compared in the following graph for carbon monoxide emissions during a cooking task (to boil 5L of water and simmer 30 minutes).

Summer 2006 CEDESOL Testing Procedures (pdf)
Clayton Rohman & Zach Steffens
ETHOSi volunteers, CEDESOL, Bolivia June 8, 2006

Here is the first report filed by the CEDESOL ETHOSi team. This is based

Comparing Cook Stoves (pdf)
Dean Still, Aprovechoi Research Institute, ETHOSi January 2006

Performance benchmarks for biomass cooking stoves were presented at the 2006 ETHOS (Engineers in Technical and Humanitarian Opportunities of Service) conference by Dean Still, Nordica Hudelson and Damon Ogle of Aprovecho Research Center. The benchmarks will be useful to stove designers and developers to compare their stoves against many others. The benchmarks were derived from tests of 20 stoves (9 replications each) in work funded by Shell Foundation and the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (USEPA).

David Pennise, Rob Bailis Center for Entrepreneurship in International Health and Development (CEIHD) February 2006

A useful list of stove performance tests has been posted to the CEIHD website at UC Berkely.
http://ceihd.berkeley.edu/heh.stove_perf_eval.htm