Micro-gasification: cooking with gas from dry biomass

Roth, Christa

2014

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Up to now, efforts to replace solid biomass fuels have largely failed as vast numbers of people still use them. The absolute figures are even set to increase in the next decades being that solid biomass is the most abundant source of vital and renewable cooking energy worldwide. The most effective way – as measured by cost, health benefits and adaptation rates – to address the current situation is to re-engineer the devices themselves as well as the practices used in converting solid fuel into useable cooking heat. Gasifiers offer just this opportunity: they are devices that produce their own gas from solid biomass in a controlled manner. Gas generation occurs separately from subsequent gas-combustion, and both stages of combustion can be controlled and optimised separately. Gasification is not a new concept but micro-gasification is a relatively new development; it was long a challenge to create gasifiers small enough to fit under a cooking pot. Recent cookstove testing by the USEPA has provided evidence that micro-gasifier cookstoves are currently the cleanest and most efficient options for utilising solid biomass fuels for cooking. As miniature charcoal kilns, gasifiers can produce charcoal as a by-product of cooking. This stands to revolutionise the way charcoal is produced and utilised in the future. Gasifier cookstoves also have great potential to create downstream value chains through further use of char in agriculture, sanitation, water filtration, etc. Thus they can not only be used in climate change mitigation as a tool for carbon-negative cooking but also play a pivotal role at the increasingly important nexus of water, energy and food security. The purpose of this manual is to make readers more familiar with gasifier cookstoves as well as improve access and availability for those who need them.

Biomasa; Cocinas; Micro-gasificación;