It is estimated that three billion people worldwide cook with traditional stoves. These stoves generaly consist of three stones and an open fire, and produce harmful emissions that are known to cause fatal illnesses. Traditional stoves claim the lives of 1.6 million people every year and cause the death of more children under the age of five than any other single cause. In addition, widespread land degradation and deforestation have resulted from inefficient fuel consumption of traditional stoves. This paper presents some results from an extensive investigation into design and experimental evalation of top-lit up-draft (TLUD) microgasifier cookstoves aimed at addressing problems associated with traditional cooking approaches. Results indicate that geometric variations of the stove and fuel size influence burn rates and emissions production, and must therefore be considered for any design and implementation.
Short-term (<60-d) stockpile-curing of dewatered municipal wastewater biosolids has been suggested as a practice to reduce malodors during subsequent field application. Biosolids from the City of Philadelphia were evaluated following stockpile-curing for 3-d, 10-d, and 50-d. Each material was top-dressed on small grain stubble in 37-m diameter rings. Four trained odor assessors were positioned in the center of each odor ring and olfactory observations were performed at: pre-application (background); 45-60 min, 4-hrs, 10-hrs, and 20-hrs following field application. Comparison of 10-minute Best Estimate Dilution Threshold (BET 10 ) odor concentrations found no statistical difference between the 3-d and 10-d treatments, but 50-d BET 10 levels were statistically greater (α=0.05). Odor character, intensity, and hedonic-tone observations were similar and triangular forced-choice dynamic olfactometer testing of flux chamber whole-air samples revealed no statistical differences. Sensory odor quantification techniques employed to assess the total effect of field malodors showed remarkably consistent results. Analytical analyses were unsuccessful in identifying a single odorant in whole-air field samples. This study was not able to confirm that short-term biosolids stockpile curing produces a less odorous product for field application.
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