Over half of the world's population in developing nations heat their homes and cook using open fire or cookstoves fueled by solid biofuels. The emissions generated from the burning of biofuels have the potential to have a significant impact on human health, air quality, and the regional and globa... Show moreOver half of the world's population in developing nations heat their homes and cook using open fire or cookstoves fueled by solid biofuels. The emissions generated from the burning of biofuels have the potential to have a significant impact on human health, air quality, and the regional and global climate. To investigate the impact of the emissions on health and the atmosphere, the REACCTING Project (Research of the Emission, Air Quality, Climate and Cooking Technologies in Northern Ghana) includes the implementation of a stove intervention among 200 households in Northern Ghana and an evaluation of the environmental and health impacts. The evaluation of the success of the stove intervention and the development of an emissions inventory, key goals of the project, are highly dependent on stove usage. Stove usage is measured qualitatively through self-reporting household surveys and quantitatively with stove use monitors (SUMs). In this study, we simulated realistic cooking experiences during which we measured stove temperatures with SUMS and measured the amount of fuel used. In the simulated cooking experiences, we conducted multiple control cooking tests (CCTs) using three stoves used in the intervention that are currently deployed in Ghana; the traditional three stone, a Ghanaian-made Gyapa stove, and the Philips gasifier stove. The CCTs gave quantitative measures of the relationship between the different stoves, including factors such as temperature variability, changes in cooking times, and heat efficiencies. We found that the placement of the SUMs on each stove is significant and affects the temperature variability profile of the stove. In addition, we found that overall fuel usage inversely affected thermal efficiencies. This ultimately led to finding that the gasifier stove was consistently three times more efficient that the locally made stove. The conclusions drawn regarding cooking practices, ultimately lead to understanding how cooking practices affect emissions from the cookstoves used in the study. Show less
