Photovoltaic - Battery System to Power Fan-Controlled Rice Husk Gasifier Cooking Stove

Abstract

More than three billion people use wood, dung, coal and other traditional fuels for cooking inside their homes. Inefficient wood stoves are responsible for indoor air pollution, respiratory related diseases and deaths but also accelerated deforestation due to excessive fuel consumption. A promising stove is the open-source, fan-controlled, top-lit updraft, autothermal Belonio gasifier. The need of electricity to power the fan proves to be an obstacle for low-income families without access to electricity. The aim of this study therefore was to develop an economical, environmentally friendly, emission-free solution to power the Belonio stove fan. Consequently, a PV-battery system was designed inclusive of charge controller and inverter. The overall efficiency of the PV-battery, battery-inverter, and inverter-fan in the system was found to be 43.8 %. Fan speed had a great effect on inverter efficiency requiring either additional electricity consumers such as lighting or mobile phone charger or the use of a DC fan in which case the inverter can be omitted. However, economically viable fan speed controllers for DC fans must be developed. The daily cost of cooking for an average 5 family household was estimated to be RM 0.40 which can be further reduced with mass production of the stand-alone PV powered Belonio gasifier system.