Making the popular clean: improving the traditional multipot biomass cookstove in Maharashtra, India

The paper presents results of a study conducted to identify and modify the prevalent traditional multipot cookstoves in rural areas of Maharashtra, India. The flaws in the existing traditional stoves were identified through a survey comprising measurement of geometrical features of different specimens in the field and face-to-face interaction with the end-users. The end-users answered a structured questionnaire including the information about existing cooking practices, per day fuel consumption, willingness to adapt to a new stove type and related things. A popular model was then modified to develop an improved multipot cookstove, which was compared against the popular cookstove by conducting a set of experiments. The parameters evaluated during the experimentation were specific fuel consumption, burning rate, thermal efficiency, time taken to do a specific cooking task and CO emissions. It was found that the modifications to the popular stove resulted in increase in thermal efficiency, decrease in burning rate and specific fuel consumption but a decrease of firepower and turn-down ratio. The activity resulted in developing a better cookstoves for the targeted community.