Very Low Levels Of Energy Efficiency

Biomass cooking stoves are mainly found in developing countries and represent basic ways of cooking food. Cooking on traditional biomass stoves is mostly related to very low levels of energy efficiency. In recent years, the indication on the harmful health impacts of enclosed air pollution has mounted and climate change has become more prominent on the global agenda. The biomass cooking stoves are devices, in which biomass (wood, agricultural residues etc) is used to supply energy for cooking. Although the three-stone open fire is common and often modified in many ways.

This includes sinking the combustion zone below ground level or constructing a barrier around it to shield the five. However, most types of these traditional cooking stoves are not only inefficient but also pollute the indoor air affecting the health of the householders (Geist and Lambin, 2003). The heavy dependence and inefficient utilization of biomass resources for energy have resulted in high depletion of the forest resources in Ethiopia.

Improved biomass cooking stoves have several advantages over their traditional counterpart including increased fuel savings, reduced cooking time and costs for the health sector, increase forest conservation, and reduced emissions of air pollutants (Kees M, and Feldmann L.

,2011).There has been a renaissance of interest in improved stoves as a ways of concurrently improving health, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, generating environmental benefits, and contributing to social and economic development. Cooking on traditional biomass stoves is mostly relates to very low levels of energy efficiency. The basic type of cooking with biomass is the commonly known as the three-stone fire, which is arranged by placing three stones in such way that it is possible to place a pot for cooking above it.

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Although this type of biomass cooking is most inefficient and bears serious risks to human health and the environment, it has been around for thousands of years and is still the most prevalent way of cooking in the world (Cleveland 2004).

As MacCarty et al.,(2008) show that the improved designs can significantly reduce emission of different global warming agents and thereby avoid risks for the environment. Emissions of different GHGs for the improved rocket type cooking stove and fuel switch to charcoal as compared to the three-stone fire. Simple stoves using solid fuels do not only convert the fuel into carbon dioxide but rather, due to poor combustion conditions, these stoves divert the significant portion of the fuels carbon into products of incomplete combustion (PIC).