Abstract
The method of heat provision for artisanal palm oil production in Ghana is riddled with inefficient systems which create unfavourable working conditions (use of spent tyres, smoke filled work tents etc.) for the women who engage in this process. This creates health hazards for the women and sometimes the children they carry along to work. This study, therefore, sought to produce a cook stove that provides a healthy work environment, is efficient, easy to use, and affordable for medium-scale clarification of palm oil. Further it should have a sustainable source of fuel (biomass from processing the palm fruits) and simultaneously produce heat and biochar. The adopted design procedure was iterative and eight preliminary tests were conducted; each an improvement of the previous stove tested. The best stove configuration was adopted for the design calculations and the final stove fabricated and tested. The fabricated stove consisted mainly of a cut out barrel, a chimney and a grate. The stove was insulated to improve its thermal efficiency. Water boiling tests and controlled cooking tests protocols were adopted for the evaluation of the stove. The thermal efficiency of the stove was calculated to be 33 ± 7 % thus representing a 400% increase in efficiency as compared with the local replica stove. The cook stove was able to process approximately 103 litres of press liquor into 35 litres of palm oil within 55 minutes for one cycle of clarification. The quantity of fuel mix used was 9.5 kg with a biochar yield of 5%. A maximum CO emission of 5 ppm was measured. The study showed that the palm oil clarification process with the designed cook stove provided a smokeless work environment, heat and biochar.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Publication date | 2017 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Event | Conference on International Research on Food Security, Natural Resource Management and Rural Development 2017 - University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany Duration: 20 Sept 2017 → 22 Sept 2017 http://www.tropentag.de |
Conference
Conference | Conference on International Research on Food Security, Natural Resource Management and Rural Development 2017 |
---|---|
Location | University of Bonn |
Country/Territory | Germany |
City | Bonn |
Period | 20/09/2017 → 22/09/2017 |
Internet address |
Keywords
- Cook stove
- Biomass
- CO emission
- Palm fruit fibre
- Palm kernel shell
- Bio char