Document Type : Research Paper
Abstract
A common method of woodchip usage is through combustion for the production of heat, and this can be channelled to various uses such as electricity production, space heating, water heating and cooking. The production of greenhouse gases and particulate matter are two examples of how incomplete combustion of wood chips can harm the environment. Therefore, this work explores technologies that enhance the combustion of biomass, which leads to the reduction of the negative environmental impact of incomplete combustion. The biomass stove with a solar-powered blower, regulated by a microcontroller (Arduino Uno) which receives signals from an IR flame sensor, was developed. The experiment carried out was a water-boiling experiment, using woodchips as fuel. For measurements, the stainless steel probe digital thermometer, electronic kitchen scale and stopwatch were used for temperature, mass and boiling time, respectively. Wood chip residues from both cooking units were weighed after each water-boiling test. The performance of the stoves was evaluated based on improvement in boiling time (τb), burning rate (Br), thermal efficiency (ηth) and the specific fuel consumption (SFC). Improvement in boiling time of 39.4%, 30.4%, 11.6%, 1.1% and 9.7%, respectively, was obtained over the stove without a blower for the same masses of boiled water ranging from 1 kg to 5 kg. The burn rate of the flame sensor-controlled blower ranged from 4.7 × 10⁻⁴ kg/s to 6.5 × 10⁻⁴ kg/s, showing improvement over the stove without a blower. The thermal efficiency of the flame sensor-controlled blower ranged from 2.8 to 10.3%, while that without a blower ranged from 2.8 to 6.7%. The specific fuel consumption (SFC) ranged from 0.106 to 0.149 kg/s for the flame sensor-controlled blower, while that without a blower ranged from 0.111 to 0.229 kg/s. The results obtained showed that the biomass stove with a flame-sensor-controlled blower gave improved performance over that without a blower in all the evaluations.
