Today, around three billion people in developing countries cook with solid biomass (e.g., wood, recycled agricultural waste or urban waste). The burning of biomass in existing cooking stoves available to those in developing countries typically emits a significant amount of smoke, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. Every day, the equivalent of ten million trees is burned for cooking, while over four million tons of carbon dioxide is released into the air. Not only do inefficient cooking stoves harm the environment by contributing to deforestation and global warming, the toxic emissions released from cooking fires kills 1.6 million people every year in developing countries.
Traditional cooking stoves used in developing countries are generally fuel-inefficient, consuming at least twice the necessary fuel. In fuel-scarce areas within development countries, households will often spend up to 40% of their income on fuel. Women may spend as much as four hours every day collecting wood.
Moreover, cooking stoves used in developing countries typically burn biomass as a source of energy. For example, unprocessed wood is typically used in cooking stoves in developing countries. Solid biomass can also be industrially pressed into a dense briquette for use in the cooking stoves; however, industrial briquette production uses heavy machinery, such as extruders or presses, which require high power to run, as well as capital investment and technical capacity in terms of installation, operation and maintenance of equipment, which is not readily available to those in developing countries. Hand-pressed biomass forms low-density briquettes, which typically release too much smoke when burned using conventional cooking stoves. Low-density briquettes typically produce a low amount of power, thereby making this type of briquette inefficient for use in a cooking apparatus.
Thus, what is needed in the art is a cooking stove and a method for burn briquettes made from biomass that consumes less fuel, reduces cooking time, and reduces harmful emissions.