Reduction of cooking energy and CO2 emission using heat retention cooker for rice cooking

Abstract

Heat retention cooker such as Hot Bag is a promising solution for reducing cooking energy which employs the retained heat for cooking in an urban kitchen or elsewhere. Different kinds of food items may be cooked using Hot Bag including rice, potato, chicken, beef, and vegetables etc. which require water for their cooking. When the food is heated to its boiling temperature on the cooking stove, the food can be continued to be cooked using this cooker by retaining the heat. This option offers several benefits including reduction of fuel usage, greenhouse gas emission, energy savings for cooking leading to monetary savings, indoor air pollution reduction etc. This paper presents a significant energy savings while cooking rice with Hot Bag as compared to cooking using traditional method. The tests showed energy savings of 42% for cooking rice. Also, the CO2 reduction is 123 grams per kg of rice. Heat retention tests have been carried out to understand the thermal behavior of the system. The thermal analysis of the heat transfer from the Hot Bag is also presented.