Design, Development, and Technological Advancements in Gas Burners for Domestic Cook Stoves: A Review
Cooking is an important domestic activity requiring energy. Traditionally, solid fuels, like firewood and charcoal, are used as the resources for supplying energy for cooking. However, burning of solid fuels inside the households causes indoor pollution and adversely affects the health of the users and other occupants. Various governmental and world bodies, like the UN, encourage people to shift from the traditional fuels to clean and sustainable options, of which gaseous fuel is an important one. Natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) which are used for domestic cooking, are fired in gas burners designed for the cookstoves. Though the use of gaseous fuels lowers the household air pollution, early domestic gas burners were low in thermal performance with efficiency value of around 40% Continuous research and development in the design and analysis of the stoves have led to a significant improvement in the thermal performance of commercial gas burners yielding efficiency exceeding 65% Efforts are still on to improve the thermal and emission performance of the burners further without sacrificing user comfort and flexibility through innovative designs. This article presents a review on the design, development, and technological advancements in the gas burner technology for domestic stoves, and analyzes the effects of various parameters on their thermal and emission performance.