A Review of Solar Cooker Technology

Proceedings of the Solar Thermal Energy Design Course
MECH9720
17 May, 2013, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Z3339685

sOLAR COOKERS

FEI PENGUniversity of New South WalesSydney, NSW, Australia |

Abstract
With the growing health problems and ecological damage caused by cooking with fossil fuels, alternative energy for cooking must be applied to help solve these issues. Solar energy is clean, free of charge and readily available for everyone to use. Considering this, an environmental friendly and cost effective device, solar cooker has been designed for thermal solar energy conversion. After years of development, solar cooking has been significantly improved and used in rural areas or the places where fossil fuels and biomass is not available. To date, solar cooker not only has been used as alternative cooking device in people’s home, but also has been applied to raw materials processing in industries, such as cashew nut shell oil extraction [1]. In this paper, the history of solar cookers, the thermal characteristics and improvements of each type, the adoption perspectives of solar cooking, conclusions and recommendations to improve the adoption are described.

INTRODUCTION 1. RESEARCH BACKGROUND
Utilization of sun’s power for varieties of purposes has undergone a very long history [2]. Ancient people discovered through concentrating the sun rays could explode nearly any object in flames. But this was only applied for military and a few venal purposes [2]. Horace de Saussure, a French-Swiss scientist, first applied the idea of “solar heat trap” into practically building a miniature greenhouse with five glass boxes one inside the other to cook fruit in 1767 [2]. The first reported solar cooker was utilized at the Cape of Good Hope in 1837 by An Englishman, John Fredrick Herche. In 1869, the first book about solar energy, Solar Energy and its Industrial Applications was published by Augustin Mouchot. In 1884, the first box type cooker was used by Samuel

References: 1. S.Medved, B.M.a.P.N., Solarball extremly light, efficient and low-cost solar cooker WREC 1996, 1996 (Faculty of Mechanical Engineering,University of Ljubljana ): p. 741-744. 2. Knudson, B., State of the Art of Solar Cooking: A Global Survey of Practices and Promotion Programs. Solar Household Energy, 2004. 3. How to select a solar cooker. 2009 [cited 2013 17/05]; Available from: http://www.alternative-heating.com/solar_cooker.html. 4. N.M.Nahar, Performance studies of a large size nontracking solar cooker. Renewable Energy, 1992. 2 No. 4/5.(Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur 342003, India): p. 421-430. 5. N.M.Nahar, Design, development and testing of a double reflector hot box solar cooker with a transparent insulation material. Renewable Energy, 2001. 23(Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur 342003, India): p. 167-179. 6. Misra, R. and T.K. Aseri, Thermal performance enhancement of box-type solar cooker: a new approach. International Journal of Sustainable Energy, 2012. 31(2): p. 107-118. 7. M.A.Mohamad., H.H. El-Ghetany., and A.M.A. Dayem, Design, Construction and Field test of Hot-Box Solar Cookers for African Sahel Region. Renewable Energy, 1998. 14(Nos. 1-4, ): p. 49-54. 8. A.Gaur, et al., Performance study of solar cooker with modified utensil. Renewable Energy, 1999. 18(Energy Laboratory, Department of Applied Sciences, Institute of Engineering & Technology, Sitapur Road, Lucknow-21, U.P., India): p. 121-129. 9. Mahavar, S., et al., Design development and performance studies of a novel Single Family Solar Cooker. Renewable Energy, 2012. 47: p. 67-76. 10. Mahavar, S., et al., Modeling and on-field testing of a Solar Rice Cooker. Energy, 2013. 49: p. 404-412. 11. Ekechukwu, O.V. and N.T. Ugwuoke, Design and measured performance of a plane reflector augmented box-type solar-energy cooker. Renewable Energy, 2003. 28(12): p. 1935-1952. 12. Srinivasa Rao, K.V.N., J.B. Mohana Rao, and P.K. Kumar, Thermal performance of a central annular cavity vessel with fins of a box-type solar cooker. International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 2012. 5(2): p. 91-96. 13. Kumar, S., Natural convective heat transfer in trapezoidal enclosure of box-type solar cooker. Renewable Energy, 2004. 29(2): p. 211-222. 14. Sharaf*, E., A new design for an economical, highly efficient, conical solar cooker. Renewable Energy, 2002. 27(The high institute for qualifying teachers, Kasr Al Akhyar, Libya, ): p. 599-619. 15. Pohekar, S.D. and M. Ramachandran, Multi-criteria evaluation of cooking energy alternatives for promoting parabolic solar cooker in India. Renewable Energy, 2004. 29(9): p. 1449-1460. 16. Purohit, I., Testing of solar cookers and evaluation of instrumentation error. Renewable Energy, 2010. 35(9): p. 2053-2064. 17. Mohod, A.G., Y.P. Khandetod, and S. Sengar, Eco-friendly utilization of parabolic concentrating solar cooker for extraction of cashew nut shell oil and household cooking. International Journal of Sustainable Energy, 2010. 29(3): p. 125-132. 18. Mawire, A., M. McPherson, and R.R.J. van den Heetkamp, Discharging simulations of a thermal energy storage (TES) system for an indirect solar cooker. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 2010. 94(6): p. 1100-1106. 19. Harmim, A., et al., Performance study of a box-type solar cooker employing an asymmetric compound parabolic concentrator. Energy, 2012. 47(1): p. 471-480. 20. Kumar, S., Estimation of design parameters for thermal performance evaluation of box-type solar cooker. Renewable Energy, 2005. 30(7): p. 1117-1126. 21. Panwar, N.L., S. Kothari, and S.C. Kaushik, Experimental investigation of energy and exergy efficiency of masonry-type solar cooker for animal feed. International Journal of Sustainable Energy, 2010. 29(3): p. 178-184. 22. Kumar, N., et al., Design and development of efficient multipurpose domestic solar cookers/dryers. Renewable Energy, 2008. 33(10): p. 2207-2211.