Design and Construction of an Improved Biogas Stove

Abstract

Increasing demand for wood and fossil fuel with limited availability has resulted in environmental pollution. Availability of energy for cooking remains a major concern for average Nigerian. Cooking is an essential daily household activity and it consumes significant quantities of energy and human effort. The hazardous effect of wood and fossil fuel coupled with the cumbersome nature in cooking with wood and fossil fuel make it necessary for search of an alternative means of energy that is renewable. In this research work, design and construction of an improved biogas fuel stove were carried out. The stove comprises of a combustion chamber where the biogas fuel is burned by natural convection mode. The biogas stove consists of the following major components; burner, injector opening, mixing tube, burner support, etc. The biogas stove was constructed from medium carbon steel material. The choice of the selected material has to do with cost, and local availability. The distance between the cooking pot and the stove burner is 40mm, and the gap between each of the port is 5 mm. Mixing tube lengths of 80mm, tube inner diameter of 15mm, and gap diameter of 2.5mm between each ports were adopted in this design. The results obtained show that an average efficiency, minimal efficiency, optimal efficiency of 56.894 %, 46.02 %, and 63.87 % respectively were obtained. Also, an average mass of water of 3.5 kg, an average evaporated mass of water of 0.0208 kg, and an average mass of fuel of 0.0551 kg were obtained. With this designed and adoption of biogas fuel stove as means of cooking, the usage of wood and fossil fuel will be reduce, thus preventing the liberation of hazardous gases to our eco-system.