Integration of Scheffler Concentrator and Thermal Storage Device for Indoor Injera Baking
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Date
2013-04
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Women and children spend much of their time in collecting fire wood to cook Ethiopian common food item, Injera and they are the main groups exposed to smoke inhalation while cooking. Deforestation of biomass for cooking is damaging the rural household economy as well as contributing for local and global environment change; i.e. environmental pollution and health problems. The aim of the research work is to integrate Scheffler concentrator with thermal storage system via a secondary reflector for solar cooking to make cooking indoor convenient and avoid the problems that are caused due to carbon inhalation and deforestation. Thus, solar thermal powered Injera baking system is designed. The system consists of the primary concentrator (Scheffler), secondary reflector and thermal storage system with the cooking (pan) assembly. SolTrace software is used to model and simulate the Scheffler concentrator and secondary reflector. The solar power reaching the storage device is determined from the software. The storage device involves sensible heat storage mechanism with Hitec heat transfer salt as a storage medium. The heat retention capacity of the storage system is determined from heating and cooling curves generated by Ansys software modeling and simulation. Based on the results obtained, any convenient indoor cooking device shall be designed especially for rural areas where there is no grid connection; and the result of this research work will alleviate problems related to carbon inhalation and deforestation.
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Thermal Engineering