EUBCE 2024 - Andrés ANCA-COUCE - Integration of Thermo-Electric Generators in a Simple Cookstove for Off-Grid Power Production

Integration of Thermo-Electric Generators in a Simple Cookstove for Off-Grid Power Production

Short Introductive summary

Around 2.7 billion people worldwide have no access to clean cooking equipment, which leads to major health problems due to high emissions of unburned products (VOC, CO and soot), and most of them do not have adequate access to electricity. The main objective of this work is to develop an affordable smart energy device that can provide electricity and cook/heat to support grid independence and self-sufficiency. A previous development has achieved the minimization of CO emissions of a top-lit updraft gasifier cookstove with forced draft, obtaining the best performing cookstove regarding CO emissions. The next step is to integrate a cheap thermoelectric generator (TEG) to generate electricity, leading to 2 benefits: (1) access to clean and affordable electricity and (2) cover the cookstove internal power consumption for the forced draft, which significantly reduces the emissions. For this purpose, several TEGs are tested in an experimental facility with variations in hot and cold side temperature and load. The experimental results are employed together with heat transfer modelling at the hot and cold side of the TEG to select and design the integration of a TEG in the cookstove.

A. Anca-Couce, University Carlos III Madrid, Leganés, SPAIN
L.M. García-Gutiérrez, University Carlos III Madrid, Leganés, SPAIN
E. Cano-Pleite, University Carlos III Madrid, Leganés, SPAIN
J.F. Guil-Pedrosa, University Carlos III Madrid, Leganés, SPAIN
D. Lello, Ekasi Energy, Stellenbosch, SOUTH AFRICA
L. von Berg, Graz University of Technology, AUSTRIA
R. Scharler, Graz University of Technology, AUSTRIA
A. Soria-Verdugo, University Carlos III Madrid, Leganés, SPAIN