III. TABLE OF CONTENTS
Total Number Page Number
of Pages
IV. Executive Summary 4 2
V.A. Summary of Phase I 8 ½ 6
V.B. Proposal for Phase II 6 ½ 14
V.B.3 Partnerships 2 20
V.C. References 2 22
VI. Supporting Letters 2 24
VII. Budget and Budget Justification 6 26
VIII. Resumes 6 32
IV. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
NCER Assistance Agreement Project Report Executive Summary
Date of Project Report: March 23, 2010
EPA Agreement Number: SU834291
Project Title: Improved Cook Stoves for Haiti Using Thermoelectrics to Reduce Deforestation and Improve Quality of Life
Faculty Advisors(s), Departments, and Institutions: Robert Stevens, Mechanical Engineering, ; Richard Lux, Engineering, ; Brian Thorn, Industrial and Systems Engineering, ; James Myers, Multidisciplinary Studies, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
Student Team Members, Departments, and Institutions: Salinla Chaijaroonrat, Chris Goulet, Matthew Labrie, Chris Brol, Aaron Dibble, Ian Donahue, Kevin Molocznik, Neal McKimpson, Young Jo Fontaine, Shawn Hoskins, Dan Scannell, Dan Higgins, and Luke Poandl; Mechanical, Electrical, and Industrial and Systems Engineering, RIT.
Project Period: August 15, 2009 through August 14, 2010
Description and Objective of Research:
According to the World Health Organization more than three billion people depend on biomass (wood, dung, or agriculture residues) primarily for cooking. The practice of cooking with biomass has decimated many ecosystems, requires an enormous amount of human effort to gather, and creates considerable health problems that continue to plague the world’s poorest populations. These problems are no more apparent than in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. To minimize the harmful effects associated with cooking, a Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) multidisciplinary student engineering team in partnership with an NGO is designing, building, and testing more efficient, cleaner, and socially acceptable cook stoves using thermoelectrics and a simple blower. The improved stoves will significantly reduce the need for biomass, which will help cut the alarming deforestation rates in Haiti while reducing the time and financial resources spent on fuel. The enhanced stove will also improve the indoor air quality, thereby reducing deaths associated with respiratory illnesses. The advanced stove will be designed with the intent of assembly in Haiti, creating jobs which are greatly needed to create local prosperity. The focus of the stove project has been to build on recent stove advancements to develop an improved stove for Haiti and other developing nations with the goals of:
1. reducing fuel use by a factor of two or greater in order to turn the tide on deforestation and diminish the time and limited financial resources spent on fuel;
2. creating microenterprises for assembling the advanced stoves to generate wealth and develop local expertise for maintaining the stoves in order to improve chances of sustained stove adoption;
3. enhancing conventional cooking techniques for traditional foods;
4. providing an electrical power source to operate auxiliary loads such as radio, lighting, charge cell phone batteries, and small UV water treatment technologies;
5. improving the air quality for women and children, and;
6. minimizing the impact on the local and global environment by incorporating a life cycle analysis in the design process.
Summary of Findings (Outputs/Outcomes):
Three student teams of mechanical, electrical, and industrial engineers were formed in the fall of 2009. The first team’s focus was on researching different testing options for comparing stoves and assisting in providing feedback during stove development for the first phase and future phases of the project. The second team focused on developing the first generation of the combustion chamber and stove body, while the third team has focused on developing a thermoelectric power unit thermal and power conditioning system. The teams have worked closely together throughout the course of the project. The student teams developed a working relationship with H.O.P.E., an NGO focused on development work in Borgne, Haiti. In consultation with H.O.P.E, the teams established the needs of the end customer, rural families and vendors in Haiti. Multiple needs were identified and prioritized to create an effective stove solution that would be more functional than the current stoves used in Borgne, Haiti, while also providing economic, environmental, and personal health benefits. The most important of these needs are: the stove is affordable, cheap to operate and maintain, fits the existing cooking practices and cookware, transportable, is simple and intuitive to use, and potentially provides electric power generation capability. The teams developed three sets of project specific engineering specifications based on established customer needs and their particular team’s project’s scope.
Several stove technologies including the 3-stone, earthen stoves, rocket stoves, various gasification stoves, and jet stoves were benchmarked to determine key design parameters. Factors that should be incorporated to improve combustion in the design included: 1) creating a good draft, 2) insulate around the fire for a hotter burn, 3) avoid the use of dense material around the combustion chamber to reduce warm-up time, 4) allow air to circulate and contact all surfaces of the fuel, 5) meter/limit fuel capacity, 6) limit cold air intake into the combustion chamber, and 7) preheat intake air to maintain complete combustion.
The stove design team developed multiple concepts including both gasifier and direct single stage combustion stoves. Based on feedback from technical reviews and consultation with H.O.P.E., the gasification stove was selected for further design development because of the potential for higher fuel efficiency, controlling burn rates, and reduced emissions. The stove integrates some of the recent stove advancements. The basic concept design for the thermoelectric stove consists of an inner combustion chamber surrounded by an outer shell. Air in the channel around the combustion chamber is slightly pressurized by the use of a fan that is powered by a thermoelectric module, a robust solid state device that converts thermal energy directly into electrical energy. The pressurized air is used to force air through perforations in the inner stove wall and into the combustion chamber to optimize the air-fuel ratio and ensure complete combustion. The air passing through the outer chamber also helps reduce heat losses through the walls. So minimizing side losses will be done without the need for ceramics or bricks. Therefore the thermoelectric stove with its thinner walls will have significantly less mass, enabling quicker start up times. Quicker start up times means reduced time spent on task and smaller fuel requirements for stove warm-up.
The first concept stove being built and tested should provide cooking power of 1,250 to 5,400 Kcal/hr and consume charcoal at a rate of 1.6 kg/hr when simmering for rice and beans, substantially less than the current Haitian practices. The first stove concept was designed to allow for quick variations in combustion chamber height, hole count, and air flow so experimental optimization can be done early in the project. Control of the air flow will provide some control over heat rates for different cooking options (boiling, simmering, frying, etc.).
Sustainability and manufacturability are critical to a good stove design. In researching possible building materials, the team discovered that Haitians have access to 55 gallon steel drums used for transporting oil and food. The Haitian people currently have a process in place for reconditioning these barrels for creating metal art. These drums are made from 18GA cold-rolled sheet steel, which was determined to be structurally capable of supporting the weight of the largest pots identified during the needs assessment stage of the project. By using the steel drums which are relatively inexpensive, the primary stove with the exception of the power unit and fan could be built for under $10 using a recycled material and a skill set that is locally available.
In order for the gasification stove to work, a fan is required. Using an inexpensive mass produced fan found in computers worldwide coupled with a thermoelectric generator module was determined to be the most viable solution. Thermoelectrics are a solid state power generation technology that can directly convert heat from the stove into electricity. An initial thermal system prototype was designed and is currently being tested. During initial start-up there will not be a sufficient temperature gradient for power generation, therefore a rechargeable battery pack will be needed to initially power the fan. Once sufficient temperatures are reached the thermoelectric will power the fan and charge the battery pack for future use. The thermal system is designed to keep the hot side of the thermoelectric module at 230°C and the cold side at 50°C, resulting in a power output of 2.7 watts using an off-the-shelf thermoelectric generator module. The designed power conditioning circuit includes a buck-boost converter and battery charge IC for charging three NiMH batteries and powering a USB power module for cell phone charging and auxiliary loads. Switching circuitry is used to prioritize the loads (fan, battery charging/discharging, and aux power).
Testing of stove performance is critical for not only quantifying reduction in fuel use and emissions of the advanced stove when compared to traditional stoves but also in providing a means to quickly optimize the stove design. The team chose the Water Boiling Test (WBT) and Controlled Cooking Test (CCT) for the basis of the RIT testing procedure. To conduct these tests in a repeatable manner a test stand was designed and is currently being built. The designed test stand will have the capability of measuring thermal performance of the stove as well as CO and particulate matter emissions during the WBT and CCT. The test stand monitors fuel consumption rates and characterizes heat losses by the use of a digital scale and multiple thermocouples.
Conclusions:
Upon completion of initial testing, the team will enter a redesign phase to address any deficiencies in the design. By addressing these deficiencies in the alpha prototype design it will be possible to ensure that the beta prototype is truly ready for field testing deployment.
Field testing will be done with the help of the team’s partner organizations in Haiti. One to two stoves will be sent to H.O.P.E. during the summer for distribution to the households in Northern Haiti. Daily use of stoves should provide valuable feedback with respect to the utility, durability, and desirability of the current design. Upon receiving this valuable feedback from field testing, the team will be able to prepare a plan for future phases of the project to be conducted by future student design teams.
Proposed Phase II Objectives and Strategies:
The second phase of this project will build on the successes of Phase I. The second phase objectives will be to
· Develop at least two additional generations of improved cook stoves based on feedback from field testing of earlier stove generations and continued needs assessment;
· Conduct extensive field testing and observations of the two generations of cook stove prototypes to both qualitatively and quantitatively measure the potential environmental, economic, and social impacts of adopting the improved stove and to assess the local manufacturing options for further design improvements;
· Develop business plans for the creation of local microenterprises in Haiti and an initiative for broadening the stove project on a national and potentially a regional level; and
· Develop pilot projects in three communities in Northern Haiti.
To build on the success of the first phase of the project, both stove kits and fully assembled prototype stoves will be sent to the H.O.P.E. Tech Center. AN RIT team of faculty and students will travel to Borgne to assist with field testing. The Tech Center will assemble the units and document issues with assembly and then provide feedback to the RIT team on areas for improvement with techniques and design modifications for more appropriate local fabrication and assembly. The Tech Centers will also distribute some of the stoves to the end users and follow-up with a survey and observations for future improvements. This feedback will be instrumental in the development of a second generation stove design. During the first field visit, the H.O.P.E. and RIT team will also collect more extensive behavioral data associated with cooking by the use surveys, videos, and direct observations. This data will be used by both the Sustainable Innovation Course and Engineering Design Teams in the design of a second generation stove and microenterprise business concept.
During the summer of the second year the local business concept and second generation of stove will be tested. During this phase, H.O.P.E will collaborate with the RIT team to identify strategies for replicating microenterprise models in other communities and regions across Haiti. The goal would be to identify community-based networks which could be leveraged to support localized capacity building and technology transfer.
During the second year of Phase II, the project team in partnership with the H.O.P.E. Tech Center will identify three communities in Northern Haiti where three pilot projects based on the microenterprise business will be developed. H.O.P.E. will assist in conducting user surveys that focus on both the technology and the business structure stove adoption.
Publications/Presentations: Three technical articles will be prepared for RIT KGCOE Multi-Disciplinary Senior Design during April and May 2010. These articles are published internally to RIT.
Supplemental Keywords: cook stove, thermoelectrics, biomass, community power, third world.
Relevant Web Sites: The working project websites can be accessed at http://edge.rit.edu/content/P10451/public/Home, http://edge.rit.edu/content/P10461/public/Home, http://edge.rit.edu/content/P10462/public/Home.
V.A. SUMMARY OF PHASE I
1. BACKGROUND AND PROBLEM DEFINITION
According to the World Health Organization more than three billion people depend on biomass (wood, dung, or agriculture residues) primarily for cooking [1]. The practice of cooking with biomass has decimated many ecosystems, requires an enormous amount of human effort to gather, and creates considerable health problems that continue to plague the world’s poorest populations. These problems are no more apparent than in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. To minimize the harmful effects associated with cooking, a Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) multidisciplinary student engineering team in partnership with an NGO is designing, building, and testing more efficient, cleaner, and socially acceptable cook stoves using thermoelectrics and a simple blower. The improved stoves will significantly reduce the need for biomass, which will help cut the alarming deforestation rates in Haiti while reducing the time and financial resources spent on fuel. The enhanced stove will also improve indoor air quality, thereby reducing deaths associated with respiratory illnesses. The advanced stove will be designed with the intent of assembly in Haiti, creating jobs greatly needed to develop local prosperity.