Development of a low-cost, electricity-generating Rankine Cycle, alcohol-fuelled cooking stove for rural communities

Kisha, Wigdan; Riley, Paul H; Hann, David

Abstract

This article describes a novel design and construction of a helical tube flash boiler that uses a 2kW nominal methylated spirit burner to heat an approximately 2.5m long coil of copper pipe fed by a nominal 8 bar electrically operated solenoid water pump. The final embodiment is for superheated steam to be converted to electricity and the waste exit heat from the generator used either for cooking or for ethanol production for low-income families in developing countries. The performance of the flash boiler has been evaluated experimentally based on the well-known "Direct-Method"; by carefully measuring both the flow of the fuel and the steam. It found that the pressure inside the pipe can reach up to 7.4 bar and the temperature of the steam released by the flashing process can reach 255 °C utilising a low-cost water pump. The research results presented in this paper demonstrate that flash boiler stove has a great potential for generating high-temperature steam for developing a low-cost cooking stove.

Citation

Kisha, W., Riley, P. H., & Hann, D. (2018). Development of a low-cost, electricity-generating Rankine Cycle, alcohol-fuelled cooking stove for rural communities. In Proceedings of the Heat Powered Cycles Conference 2018 (350-357)

• Conference Name: The 8th Heat Powered Cycles Conference
• Conference Location: University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
• Start Date: Sep 16, 2018
• End Date: Sep 19, 2018
• Acceptance Date: Feb 7, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Mar 7, 2019
• Publication Date: Sep 13, 2018
• Deposit Date: Jun 24, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 27, 2021
• Pages: 350-357
• Book Title: Proceedings of the Heat Powered Cycles Conference 2018
• ISBN: 9780956332967
• Keywords: Flash boiler; spirit burner; copper coil; expander; electrical generator
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5721685
• Related Public URLs: https://heatpoweredcycles.org/proceedings-of-hpc-2018