Determination of Thermal Efficiency and Fuel Consumption Rate of a Pressure Cooker Fueled with Blends of Waste Vegetable Oil and Kerosene

Abstract

In Nigeria, before the removal of subsidy on kerosene in 2016, the product was accessible to low-income individuals and is intended to be used as a fuel for cooking, lighting, or heating. Recently, kerosene is rapidly vanishing from rural families and it is becoming inaccessible due to its ever-rising cost. Therefore, to ease the hardship of low-income individuals to have access to high thermal efficiency cookers with affordable fuel, a study was carried out to determine the thermal efficiency and fuel consumption rate of a pressure cooker fueled with a blend of waste vegetable oil and kerosene. Based on this, a low-cost pressure cooker was developed with locally available materials to aid the atomization of fuel during cooking. Along with this, vegetable oil was blended with kerosene to enhance the quantity of kerosene used to fuel the pressure cooker. This cooker fueled with blends of vegetable oil and kerosene was analyzed for its thermal efficiency and fuel consumption rate and was also compared to the conventional kerosene stove. The result shows that the constructed pressure cooker has a thermal efficiency of 52% which is 20% more than the conventional kerosene stove but the developed pressure cooker consumes more fuel (48.62 ml) than the conventional kerosene wick stove (33.78 ml). Though the pressure cooker consumes more fuel, the thermal efficiency per time with respect to the fuel consumed is much better than conventional kerosene stoves which makes the developed cooker cheaper and more affordable both to low-income earners and for rural dwellers.