IIT Guwahati technology promises to make cooking stoves energy efficient

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati have come up with a technology that promises to make cookstoves energy-efficient, economical and eco-friendly. 

Burners used in these cookstoves are based on Porous Medium Combustion (PMC) technology, capable of exhibiting enhanced combustion characteristics, the institute said on Tuesday. 

A team led by P. Muthukumar, professor, from IITG has developed Porous Radiant Burners (PRBs) for various cookstoves with advanced combustion technology known as Porous Media Combustion. 

“These indigenously developed cookstoves are assisted with specially-designed PRBs that yield better performance as compared to their conventional counterparts at all fronts of energy-saving, emissions and overall cost,” Muthukumar said in a statement.

The findings of these developments have been published in reputed journals and also patented. The newly developed PRBs can be effectively used for fuels like LPG, Biogas and Kerosene for domestic as well as community/commercial cooking. 

Muthukumar further said, “These PRBs operate on the principle of Porous Media Combustion (PMC), where the reaction is entrapped in a porous matrix due to which, the heat loss to the surroundings is restricted and a higher amount of heat is transferred to the load”. 

The prototypes needed for the invention have been developed in-house and are rigorously tested against available BIS standards for cookstoves. Fuel-saving from these cookstoves is highly promising, said the statement.

The research team plans to commercialise the technology within one year and corroborate with industrial partners to extend the reach of these cookstoves in the Indian market. The research team believes that the work will have a global impact on burner-based applications and their multi-billion-dollar market worldwide.

"Clean cooking energy access has been widely recognized as a critical input for sustainable development. Having access to reliable, clean and modern cooking energy improves the standard of living. The provision of clean cooking energy also addresses concerns related to food security, climate change and health care, among others, because of which it has become a goal in its own right. Because of its importance, many programs are undertaken by both governmental and non-governmental organizations all over the world," it said.

The Project is financed through IMPRINT, a technology development initiative of the union ministry of human resource development and the department of science and technology.