Construcción de una estufa de uso doméstico utilizando como fuente de combustible biomasa sólida

The present study comprises the analysis, design and construction of a domestic stove gasifier for rural communities, the unit utilizes local residual biomass available in Ecuador’s Zone 8 as a fuel. During the analysis, literature was consulted in order to avoid common known problems presented in this kind of stoves. Aditionally, it has been considered multiple design criteria and heat transfer analysis. Importantly, for the construction, local materials has been used to keep costs low and increment its accessability. Throughout the evaluation of the stove gasifier several experiments using the local available biomass were run (rice husks, dry branches and litterfall). The best results were obtained when using agroforestal residues, i.e. a blend of 90% dry branches and 10% litterfall. However, a problem of compaction was detected when using rice husks; this compaction lead to a poor combustion and excess of smoke. To prevent compaction leaves was used as a bulking material. The results suggested that the best blend when working with rice husks was a mix of 20% rice husks – 80% of litterfall, higher concentrations of rice husks will result in excesive amounts of smoke and poor combustion. Finally, the designed stove gasifier works well, if the used biomass does not go through compaction. Therefore, it can be used in rural villages as an alternative for cooking