New Approaches to Performance Testing of Improved Cookstoves

Abstract

Monitoring and evaluation of improved cookstove performance is a critical factor in program success; however, consistent evidence indicates water boiling tests and controlled cooking tests are not representative of stove performance during daily cooking activities, and there is no ability to link these tests to kitchen performance tests during normal daily cooking activities. Since emissions from cookstoves contribute heavily to regional estimates of carbonaceous aerosols and other short-lived greenhouse species and given the current importance of stove performance tests as a basis for global climate prediction models and IPCC inventories, improvements in performance testing are critical to derive more representative estimates. Here real-time combustion efficiencies and emissions rates from daily burn cycles of open fires and improved stoves in Mexico are used to propose a new approach to stove performance testing, using simple and economical measurement methods, based on replication of the distribution of emission rates and combustion efficiencies seen during daily cooking activities in homes. This approach provides more relevant information for global climate models and inventories, while also providing a means to recreate representative emissions profiles in a laboratory setting for technical analyses. On the basis of emission rates and combustion efficiencies during normal daily cooking, we suggest performance criteria that can be used as benchmarks for laboratory testing of improved stoves in the absence of site-specific information, although requiring confirmation by field testing during daily cooking activities.

Fuelwood Savings and Carbon Emission Reductions by the Use of Improved Cooking Stoves in an Afromontane Forest, Ethiopia

“…The relatively high coefficient of variation results from the different influencing parameters (e.g., different amount of dough, different stove setup, skills of cooks) and a very small test sample, but it is comparable to other empirical ICS studies elsewhere [58]. Under laboratory test conditions, where all parameters are standardized, the CCT has a coefficient of variation (CV) between 5% and 10% [59].…”

Win-win scenarios at the climate–development interface: Challenges and opportunities for stove replacement programs through carbon finance

“…As Johnson et al (2010) point out, measurement and verification of emissions reductions in households spread over wide distances are much more complex than, for example, calculating industrial emissions from point-sources such as smoke stacks. Table 3 Barriers for reducing GHG emissions in ICS projects.…”

“…For CO2 and methane reductions (allowed under Kyoto) Johnson et al (2010) found Mexican Pastari stoves to reduce 3.1 tCO2e home À1 year À1 (95% CI AE 26%), while other stove types, such as Honduran ecofogones have been found to create reductions varying according to stove use, ranging from 0.85 tCO2e to 3.45 tCO2e per year for domestic and commercial use (i.e. cooking tortillas), respectively (Bumpus, 2009).…”

“…Fuel consumption is also a key factor in determining emissions reductions through monitoring. Fuel consumed by households using biomass stoves usually comes from informal sectors, non-commercial or locally purchased sources, and as a result poses methodological and logistical problems in tracking fuel consumption; a key element in greenhouse gas accounting for cookstoves (Johnson et al, 2010).…”

Influence of fire-ignition methods and stove ventilation rates on gaseous and particle emissions from residential coal braziers

“…air supply amount and fuel-air mixing conditions) and even experimental methods (e.g. laboratory chamber, simulated stove/open burning, and field measurement) (Shen et al, 2013;Chen et al, 2012;Jetter et al, 2012;Johnson et al, 2010;Jetter & Kariher, 2009).…”