DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF A PALM OIL PRESSURE STOVE

摘要

The use of the pressurized palm oil as fuel for cooking stove has numerous ecological, environmental and economic benefits. The design took into consideration the problems of reducing the vapourization period, efficiency of combustion, availability of raw materials, maintainability and the user's safety, period of atomization and complexity. Atomisation is the process whereby bulk liquid is transformed into a collection of drops. This transformation goes through the break-up of liquid jet into number of filaments, which in turn transform droplets. It is noted that a small amount of ethanol is needed to cold start the stove for start-up. It is established that atomised palm oil stove is cheaper for the rural dwellers. Hence, it is concluded that commercial production of the atomized palm oil stove will appreciably reduce the cost of cooking and reduce pollution for the rural dwellers and medium income earners. It will also reduce perennial shortage of kerosene and cooking gas which is a problem in Nigeria. A further benefit of plant oils as fuel is that they reduce the severe operating risks related to highly inflammable kerosene. Most cooking equipment accidents and fire accidents are usually associated with kerosene and gas. These situations are rarely associated with atomized palm oil stove. Also, the emissions of the plant oil stove are very much lower than the ones for open fires and also lower than that of the pressurized kerosene stoves.