Fine particle emissions from biomass cookstoves : Evaluation of a new laboratory setup and comparison of three appliances

Abstract: It is estimated that around three billion people globally rely on traditional usage of biomass to cover their daily energy needs, which causes health and social inequality problems and contributes to global warming. Thus, the study of particle emissions from cookstoves provides important information that can help improve global welfare.   This study aims to (a) evaluate a new laboratory setup for measurement of particle emissions from cookstoves and (b) use this setup to compare the particle emissions from three cookstove appliances that cover the whole spectra of used technologies, namely a 3-stone fire, an improved cookstove and a gasifier stove. Emissions of total suspended particles (TSP), fine particles (≤ 2500 nm) and other emission components such as carbon dioxide were measured. Results from this study show that the new laboratory setup is appropriate to measure and investigate fine particle emissions from cookstoves as well as cookstove efficiency. Further, it also shows that the 3-stone fire was the cookstove with the highest emission factor of all, followed by the rocket stove and the gasifier stove respectively. The analysis of the data obtained from the transient particle measurement provided some information on the particle size and the soot and salt contained in the overall emitted particles. Finally, some suggestions such as continuous measurements of background particle and CO2 levels are recommended. Additionally, further research ideas are also proposed.