Energy Conversion and Management 247 (2021) 114755

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Emission minimization of a top-lit updraft gasifier cookstove based on

experiments and detailed CFD analyses
Robert Scharler a, b, *, Georg Archan a, Christian Rakos c, d, Lukas von Berg a, Dave Lello e,
Christoph Hochenauer a, b, Andrés Anca-Couce a
a
Institute of Thermal Engineering, Graz University of Technology, Inffeldgasse 25b, 8010 Graz, Austria
b
BEST – Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH, Inffeldgasse 21b, 8010 Graz, Austria
c
proPellets Austria – Netzwerk zur Förderung der Verbreitung von Pelletsheizungen, Franz-Josefs-Kai 13/12-13, 1010 Wien, Austria
d
World Bioenergy Association, Kammakargatan 22, 111 40 Stockholm, Sweden
e
EKASI ENERGY, 11 Distillery Road, 7600 Stellenbosch, South Africa

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Around 2.7 billion people worldwide have no access to clean cooking equipment, which leads to major health
Clean cookstoves problems due to high emissions of unburned products (VOC, CO and soot). A top-lit updraft gasifier cookstove
Biomass combustion with forced draft was identified as the technology with the highest potential for reducing harmful emissions from
Emissions
incomplete combustion in simple cookstoves. The basic variant of the stove was equipped with a fan for efficient
Top-lit updraft gasifier – TLUD
Experimental investigation
mixing of product gas with air and fired with pellets to increase the energy density of low-grade residues. The
CFD analysis development was conducted based on water boiling test experiments for wood and rice hull pellets and targeted
CFD simulations of flow, heat transfer and gas phase combustion with a comprehensive description of the re­
action kinetics, which were validated by the experiments. Emphasis was put on the reduction of CO emissions as
an indicator for the burnout quality of the flue gas. The optimisation was carried out in several steps, the main
improvements being the design of a sufficiently large post-combustion chamber and a supply of an appropriate
amount of primary air for a more stable fuel gasification. The experiments showed CO emissions <0.2 g/MJdel for
wood and rice hull pellets, which corresponds to a reduction by a factor of about 15 to 20 compared to the basic
forced draft stove concept. Furthermore, these values are between 5 and 10 times lower than published water
boiling test results of the best available cookstove technologies and are already close to the range of automatic
pellet furnaces for domestic heating, which are considered to be the benchmark for the best possible reduction of
CO emissions.

1. Introduction
Globally, 3.8 million deaths were attributable to indoor air pollution
(IAP) in 2016, virtually all in low- and middle-income countries [1] (see
Table 1). This can be explained by the fact that about 2.7 billion people
have no access to clean cooking devices and are mainly cooking tradi­
tionally with three stone fires and substandard stoves (see Table 1 for
regional distribution) [2]. Traditional biomass utilization for heating
and cooking represents nearly 7.5 % of the world total final energy
consumption (compared to 5 % of modern bioenergy use) [2]. The fuel
used is mainly wood but also agricultural residues, char and animal
dung are employed.
However, traditional biomass utilization in three stone fires,
traditional stoves like mud stoves or planchas and charcoal stoves (see
Fig. 1) lead to health and environmental problems due to the high
emissions of unburnt products, including carbon monoxide (CO), vola­
tile organic compounds (VOC), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH)
and soot [3]. In Fig. 1, CO and particle emissions of traditional biomass
cook stoves according to lab measurements by Jetter et al. [4] and
Bilsback et al. [5] are compared with emissions from best available
technologies (BAT) of biomass boilers and wood log stoves for residen­
tial heating. Due to design deficiencies, they have extremely high CO
emissions with up to about 50 g/MJdel for charcoal stoves and particu­
late matter with a particle diameter < 2.5 µm (PM2.5) fine particle
emissions of up to 3 g/MJdel for three stone fires. In contrast, the CO
emissions of BAT in modern residential heating systems are < 0.1 mg/
MJdel for boilers and about 1.3 g/MJdel for wood log stoves while the

* Corresponding author at: Institute of Thermal Engineering, Graz University of Technology, Inffeldgasse 25b, 8010 Graz, Austria.
E-mail address: robert.scharler@tugraz.at (R. Scharler).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2021.114755
Received 27 June 2020; Accepted 9 September 2021
Available online 22 September 2021
0196-8904/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
R. Scharler et al. Energy Conversion and Management 247 (2021) 114755

Nomenclature temperature = 0 ◦ C)
TLUD top-lit updraft gasifier stove
Abbreviations TS traditional mud stove
BAT best available technology TSF three stone fire
CFD computational fluid dynamics VOC volatile organic compounds
CS charcoal stove w.b. wet basis
CO carbon monoxide WBT water boiling test
d.b. dry basis
daf dry ash free Greek letters
EDC Eddy Dissipation Concept λ stoichiometric air ratio
EDM Eddy Dissipation Model λprim stoichiometric air ratio related to primary air and
FD forced draft converted fresh biomass
IAP indoor air pollution λprim,devolatilized stoichiometric air ratio related to primary air and
ND natural draft devolatilized biomass
NOx nitrogen oxides λtotal,stove eff. stoichiometric air ratio related to air mass flow rate
PAH polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons through the cookstove and devolatilized biomass
PM2.5 particulate matter with a particle diameter < 2.5 μm λtotal,test_rig stoichiometric air ratio related to the total air mass flow
RNG renormalization group rate entering the test rig and devolatilized biomass
std m3 m3 gas at standard conditions (pressure = 101325 Pa;

Table 1
Regional distribution of population without access to clean cooking in 2017 [2]
and number of deaths per year due to household air pollution in 2016 [1]
Population traditionally using Number of deaths per year due
biomass, coal and waste for cooking to household air pollution in
in millions millions
Africa 895 0.74
Asia 1,726 2.68
America 56 0.08
Total 2,677 3.50 (3.77a)
a
incl. Europe & Eastern Mediterranean region
total dust emissions (including PM2.5) of BAT are below 15 mg/MJdel
for boilers and below 40 mg/MJdel for stoves. Furthermore, the low ef­
ficiencies of traditional cooking (typically between around 15 to 25%
[4] for water boiling tests performed without lid on the pot) enhance
deforestation and additional greenhouse gases are emitted (CO, NOx and
VOC are ozone precursors) as well as soot (black carbon), which is also a
climate forcing agent.
To tackle this problem, many people around the world are working
on the development of affordable and clean cooking appliances. The
most important initiative in this context is the Clean Cooking Alliance
network established in 2010 and hosted by the United Nations Foun­
dation, bundling the activities in the development of clean cooking de­
vices. Several test protocols for cooking devices have been developed,
with the Water Boiling Test (WBT) [9] being established as commonly
used method to support the development and test of cook stoves. In
2018, the ISO 19867–1 standard [10] based on the WBT was introduced,
which is increasingly being used for cookstove certification.
A considerable number of works deal either with the empirical
improvement of cookstoves or with the characterisation of efficiency
and emission behaviour based on the WBT and the newly introduced ISO
19867–1 standard or field test protocols. Tryner et al. [11,12] for
example investigated by means of modified WTB the influence of stove
design, operating conditions and fuel used on the performance of
gasifier stoves. Moreover, Kirch et al. [13,14] investigated relevant
influencing parameters like air supply and fuel type on the fuel con­
version and emission behavior of top lit updraft (TLUD) gasifier stoves.
However, despite numerous works on the characterization of cookstoves
under laboratory and field-test conditions and several improvements the
emissions of these devices are still extremely high compared to resi­
dential heating systems (for a short review see section 2.1 of
supplementary material).
Pure experimental tests with these protocols generally lack a deeper
insight into the underlying interlinked processes taking place in the
cookstove. This limitation can be overcome by computational fluid dy­
namics (CFD), which is being successfully applied in several bioenergy
technologies and it is gaining an increasing attention also as design tool
for cookstoves. Up to now, however, there are comparatively few
studies, which mostly use highly simplified models with simulations of
flow and heat transfer and usually disregard combustion reactions.
Moreover, the majority of the few approaches considering combustion
are not capable of predicting trends in emissions from incomplete
combustion because the kinetics are not considered or are over­
simplified and approximations regarding the gas released from the fuel
bed and the simplifications of the furnace geometry are too coarse for a
simulation of the combustion process. Pande et al. [15] for example
modelled a rocket stove with a 2D approximation, neglected radiative
heat transfer and modelled gas phase combustion neglecting reaction
kinetics. For a short review on CFD modelling of cookstove see section
2.2 of the supplementary material.
Thus, in this work, as the overall goal, the authors developed and
employed a novel combined CFD/WBT method to optimize in a multi-
step approach a cookstove for wood fuels and agricultural residues
with minimized emissions from incomplete combustion. A top-lit up­
draft gasifier (TLUD) cookstove operated with a fan for forced draft (FD)
air supply and designed for pellets, resulting in high energy density and
homogenized combustion properties of the fuel (FabStove of Ekasi En­
ergy), was identified as low-cost cookstove technology with the largest
potential for emission reduction (for an explanation see section 4 of the
supplementary material). It should be noted here that, according to the
WBT, the basic concept of the investigated TLUD is already better as
most of the devices investigated in [4] (a detailed comparison is
included in section 3.5). However, this work shows that there is still a
significant potential for improvements and reduction in CO emissions by
a factor of 15 to 20 for the optimized variant of the stove developed in
this work. Besides, the work was done to generally demonstrate the
capabilities of the novel combined CFD/WBT multi-step optimization
method for cookstoves. Even though it is employed to developed a
specific optimized cookstove technology, it can be applied to any other
cookstove design, as the principles of combustion technology that can be
analyzed in depth using this innovative tool are always the same.
To achieve the goal of the development of the novel multi-step design
method combining detailed CFD modelling and water boiling tests it was
necessary to selected and adapt suitable CFD submodels and combine

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R. Scharler et al. Energy Conversion and Management 247 (2021) 114755

them into an overall model. The applied CFD submodels for the
description of flow, turbulence, heat transfer including radiation and gas
combustion were already extensively validated by their developers and
other researchers. Moreover, the authors have developed, verified and
evaluated overall models for automatic biomass furnaces and chimney
based on such submodels in previous works. Here, the routines were
extended for the simulation of cookstoves and evaluated regarding their
applicability. The overall model includes a detailed description of tur­
bulent flow, heat transfer and the optional use of two different com­
bustion models with different levels of complexity. One model
configuration contains a global reaction mechanism for the performance
of design studies and trend analysis in comparatively short times, and
one model configuration contains a comprehensive mechanism with a
higher number of elementary reactions that can be used for more
detailed analysis of emission formation, with this model resulting in
longer computation times. This level of detail in CFD modeling of
cookstoves is a novelty in itself and allows for improved analysis of the
underlying processes as a function of relevant influencing parameters.
The new overall model configurations for cookstoves were then verified
and evaluated in this work by the conducted WBT.
For a targeted technology development and optimization, WBT ex­
periments with CO emission and efficiency measurements were sys­
tematically performed for different development steps of the stove
starting from a basic design, supported by a dedicated CFD-based pro­
cess analysis of selected variants.
The optimized stove was benchmarked against WBT results from
literature. Additionally, results from a previous work of the authors on
the improvement of CO emissions of a natural draft TLUD [16] were
implemented in the comparison to analyse in detail the advantages of
the application of a fan for air supply. Finally, conclusions regarding the
developed methods and cookstove optimization were derived.
2. Materials and methods
In the following, a brief overview about the TLUD stove technology
(section 2.1), the methodological steps and stove variants used for the
CFD overall model verification and multistage optimization of the TLUD
(section 2.2), the WBT (section 2.3) and the developed and employed
CFD overall model variants including case setup (section 2.4) is given.
2.1. Employed forced draft TLUD stove
Common fixed bed gasifiers, such as the updraft and downdraft
gasifiers, have an automatic and continuous operation, while the TLUD
operates in a batch mode. The automatically operated gasifiers are too
complex for use as cookstoves. The TLUD as one of the most common
cookstove technologies, also known as the reverse downdraft gasifier, is
an easy-to-use gasifier that is as flexible as the updraft gasifier and offers
the advantage of the downdraft gasifier in that the volatiles, including
tar, produced during pyrolysis are partially decomposed and burned as
they pass through the hot char bed above. Thus, as mentioned in the
introduction (and explained in greater detail in chapter 4 of the

Fig. 1. CO emissions (top right) and dust emissions (bottom right) for traditional cooking devices (gray background) [4,5] in comparison to modern biomass boilers
and wood log stoves for residential heating (right) [6]; note: in traditional cookstoves only PM2.5 emissions are measured, modern plants refer to TSP including
PM2.5; traditional cooking devices: TSF…three stone fire (top left, source: [7]), TS…traditional mud or plancha stove (centre left, source: [7]), CS..charcoal stove
(bottom left, source: [8]), L…lower value, U…upper value. residential heating: WLS…wood log stove; WLB…wood log boiler; WCB…wood chips boiler; PB…pellet
boiler; B…best available technology; S…standard technology.

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R. Scharler et al. Energy Conversion and Management 247 (2021) 114755

supplementary material) a forced draft TLUD with a fan for air supply to Table 2
improve combustion and with pellets providing high energy densities test matrix of the investigated cookstove cases and applied methods.
and homogenized combustion properties of the fuel was selected as basis No. variant method WBT fuel pot/water initial
for the process optimization and emission minimization. Fig. 2 shows a runs volume fuel mass
scheme of a TLUD and a photo of the basic version of the employed FD- 1 basic WBT 1 wood 5/4 l 400 g
TLUD FabStove of Ekasi Energy. pellets
2 basic CFD wood 5/4 l 400 g
pellets
2.2. Investigated cases 3 improved - CFD wood 5/4 l 400 g
V1-NI pellets
An overview about the investigated cases (see Table 2) and the multi- 4 improved - CFD wood 5/4 l 400 g
step method for the overall model verification and optimization of the V1-I pellets
5 basic WBT 2 rice hull 5/4 l 400 g
multi-fuel FD TLUD (see Fig. 3) for the two selected fuels wood pellets
pellets
and rice hull pellets (Table 3) is given in this section. Generally, it 6 improved - WBT 2 rice hull 5/4 l 400 g
comprises of 3 steps: WBT for the basic variant, which is shown in Fig. 2, V1-I pellets
served for overall CFD model verification and the results of the WBT and 7 optimized - WBT 2 wood 7/5 l 400 g
CFD simulations were employed for process analysis of the basic V2 pellets
8 optimized - WBT 2 rice hull 7/5 l 600 g
concept. From these results an improved variant V1-I/NI (with/without
V2 pellets
insulation) was designed and investigated with CFD and WBT. Based on
its in-depth process analysis, the optimized variant V2 was developed
and evaluated based on detailed WBT (only results for the cold start Based on the outcomes of the investigations, the provisionally
WBT are shown here). The optimized variant V2 as the final configu­ improved variant V1 with a 13 cm long combustion chamber tube
ration was investigated with the WBT for both fuels to demonstrate its placed on top of the stove was designed (Fig. 3) and analyzed via CFD
benefits. simulation without and with insulation of the extra combustion chamber
In a first step, the basic variant of the TLUD FabStove (Fig. 2) with 10 (V1-NI / VI-I) for the wood pellet operating case (test no. 3 and 4)
cm inner cookstove tube diameter was subjected to a process analysis for adapted for the increased pressure losses as presented in section 2.4.4.
wood pellets as fuel (see Table 3) with a cold start WBT. As wood However, WBT with the improved variant V1 were only performed with
(pellets) is a common fuel and rice hull is a novel and potentially more rice hull pellets due to time and effort constraints, as this was the main
complicated fuel, CFD model verification and application was only fuel of interest at that time. The length of the combustion chamber tube
performed for wood pellets since reliable release data from literature was determined as the maximum possible height increase due to design
could only be found for this feedstock. Furthermore, the WBTs showed restrictions, i.e. the user should still be able to comfortably cook when
that the trends regarding the influence of geometry changes on flow, sitting beside the stove. The expectable residence time increase by this
burnout and heat transfer were the same for wood and rice hull pellets extension was estimated based on the additional combustion chamber
and thus development time could be saved since all relevant key infor­ volume and the flue gas volume flow rate calculated with CFD.
mation for stove optimization could already be obtained for wood Since the CFD analysis of the improved variant V1-I with insulation
pellets. showed a large potential for an enhanced flue gas burnout, it was
Based on this experiment, a detailed CFD analysis of flow, gas phase implemented as test device and investigated with cold start WBT (test
combustion and heat transfer in the cookstove was performed with the no. 6) together with the basic design (test no. 5) with two repetitions for
two overall model configurations with different combustion models of the more relevant fuel rice hull pellets each (see Table 3). These ex­
various complexity (regarding explanations see section 2.4.3) for a periments showed for V1-I a CO emission reduction by a factor 2 to 3
steady state operation case (test No. 2) derived from WBT data, mass and compared to the basic variant and, in addition, an insufficient primary
energy balances and a pressure loss curve of the employed coaxial fan. air supply for a stable and low-emission combustion.
These simulations served for a verification and evaluation of the overall Based on this outcome, a new design with a 10 cm extension of the
models and an in-depth process analysis. stove above the secondary air nozzles (optimized variant V2 with same
height of cookpot above the nozzles as V1-I, which is 13 cm) was
developed with the target to have the same height of the cookstove
including rack and a similar residence time in the combustion chamber
could be achieved,
Furthermore, the optimized variant V2 includes a larger cross-
section of the primary air supply (4 additional primary air nozzles
with 6 mm diameter besides the gap in the bottom) to increase primary
air amount and firepower, and moreover, to improve combustion
behavior. Number and diameter of the primary air nozzles were semi-
empirically determined by pressure loss estimations and by testing
different nozzle designs in combustion pre-tests.
Variant V2 was finally investigated with WBT for wood pellets (test
no. 7) and rice hull pellets (test no. 8) with 2 repetitions per fuel (see
Table 3). In order to save time, no CFD simulations were performed for
the final variant V2, as the key information could be gained by the CFD
simulation of the basic variant and the variants V1-I/NI (with / without
insulation) with wood pellets. However, the evaluation of V2 with WBT
confirmed the assumption that the trends regarding the influence of the
modifications on combustion are the same for both fuels. The tests for
the basic FabStove and the improved variants V1-I/NI were carried out
with a smaller water pot (with 4 l of water) than the standard size, as
Fig. 2. Scheme of TLUD stove (left) and photo of implementation of the TLUD preliminary tests showed a comparatively low firepower with longer
concept in the FabStove (basic variant).

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R. Scharler et al. Energy Conversion and Management 247 (2021) 114755

Fig. 3. Scheme of TLUD (FabStove) optimization with combined CFD/WBT for wood and rice hull pellets; basic concept (left); improved isolated/not isolated variant
V1-I/NI (centre); optimized variant V2 (right), V1-I not shown here: tube is insulated with 1 cm rockwool; PA…primary air; SA…secondary air.

cooking time. For the optimized variant V2, on the other hand, a larger for wood pellets with a higher energy density.
firepower was expected due to a larger cross-section of the primary air
supply, therefore the recommended standard size of the water pot filled
with 5 l of water according to the WBT protocol [9] was used. For the 2.3. Water boiling test with CO emissions measurements
WBT of V2, 600 g rice hull pellets were used instead of 400 g to account
for the larger water volume, while the original quantity was sufficient The experiments were performed based on the water boiling test
(WBT) (version 4.2.3) [9], with measurements of CO emissions and

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Table 3
Composition and NCV of fuels used; soft wood pellets; composition of softwood pellets from in-house fuel data base; composition of rice hull pellets from fuel analysis.
unit softwood pellets Rice hull pellets WBT improved variant V1-I Rice hull pellets WBT optimized variant V2

water content m% w.b. 7.0 5.4 7.5

C m% d.b. 50.0 40.6 40.6
H m% d.b. 6.1 5.1 5.1
N m% d.b. 0.1 0.4 0.4
Cl m% d.b. – 0.4 0.2
S m% d.b. – 0.1 0.1
O m% d.b. 43.3 36.2 36.9
Ash m% d.b. 0.5 17.3 16.7
NCV MJ/kg w.b. 17.4a 14.2b 13.5a
a
NCV based on calculation of GCV with Gaur and Reed [51]
b
analysis data

water temperature, whereas the combustion chamber of 30 kW biomass

boiler including measurement ports and data logging was used as test
stand.
As the experiments were not for the purpose of certification of a
cookstove but to perform a process evaluation as a basis for a technology
development, not the full set of recommended tests including high
power with hot and cold start and low power simmering tests with at
least 3 repetitions were performed. Only cold start tests were performed
as worst-case scenario, with 2 repetitions for all variations investigated,
with exception of the basic variation for the initial investigations with
wood pellets.
The investigated cases are detailed in Table 2 and the composition of
the employed fuels is shown in Table 3. The procedure of the WBT was
implemented as follows: A certain amount of lamp oil was mixed with
0.05 kg pellets, which were put on top of the fuel bed and then ignited.
After about 1–2 min ignition time the WBT were started and performed
until the water started to boil. The following quantities were measured
at beginning and end of the WBT: mass of the cookpot filled with water;
mass of initial fuel and remaining fuel and char. In addition, during the
WBT CO emissions and O2 concentrations in the flue gas were contin­
uously detected with a Testo 350 XL exhaust gas analysis system (similar
to the configuration in [17]) as well as temperature of the inlet air and
water.
With these data, including the fuel compositions analysis, mass and
energy balances could be calculated to determine the efficiencies ac­
cording to the WBT 4.2.3. calculation sheet, to transfer CO emission
values from mg/std m3 to mg CO / MJ fuel and to mg/MJ delivered.
Moreover, they were employed to derive steady-state operating data for
the CFD simulations.
Fig. 4. Scheme of the CFD model of the improved cookstove V1; frame plate:
425 × 425 mm; block surrounding the stove: 825 mm side length, 725 mm
height; water pot considered with isothermal walls (with 42 ◦ C water temper­
2.4. Setup of overall CFD model variants of the cookstove
ature at 8 min batch time).

This section contains the methodology of CFD modelling, including a

description of the overall model in section 2.4.1 and of product gas amount of air flowing through the test rig and bypassing the stove enters
release in section 2.4.2, an explanation of the CFD models employed for the block from the bottom surface surrounding the frame. Internal and
the cookstove in section 2.4.3 and finally the definition of the steady- external heat transfer over the walls and simulation boundaries is
state operating cases in section 2.4.4. considered as well.

2.4.1. Description of overall CFD model
Steady-state CFD simulations were performed for the basic variant
and the improved variant V1 of the stove for wood pellets as fuel. In
Fig. 4, a scheme of the CFD domain of the improved cookstove V1 with
indications of flow pathways and simulation boundaries is shown. The
product gas release is empirically derived based on TLUD experiments
by James et al. [18] and the WBT of the basic FabStove with wood
pellets. The fuel bed in the CFD domain (see Fig. 4) is modelled as a
porous zone where the mass and energy fluxes of the released gas enter
through an inlet at the bottom. The CFD simulation considers the supply
of secondary air, the reactive flow in the combustion chamber and
around the cook pot, exiting on top of a block above the frame, which
approximates the surroundings of the stove in the test rig. The minor
2.4.2. Description of product gas release from the fuel bed
As the transient processes in the bed of a TLUD stove are highly
complex and are not yet experimentally characterized in detail, two
simplifications were made in order to keep the numerical efforts
reasonable. Instead of a full batch, a steady-state simulation with aver­
aged operating data was performed. Furthermore, the processes in the
fuel bed were not modelled in detail. The release rates of the volatiles
were derived based on an experimental characterization of the char and
product gas yields in a TLUD using wood as fuel by James et al. [18],
together with the assumptions of a typical softwood composition with a
low ash content (C, H, O, N and Ash) from in-house data (see Table 4)
and mass and energy balances. Here, the experiments of James et al.
with the lowest amount of primary air (8 l⋅-1) were employed to derive

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Table 4 defined fuel compositions (see Table 3 and Table 4) to calculate the
Product gas properties derived for CFD simulation of FabStove with wood pellets released mass and energy fluxes from the fuel bed as boundary condi­
based on literature data from James et al. [18]; λprim,biomass …stoichiometric air tions for the CFD simulation. It was as well enforced that elemental
ratio related to primary air and converted fresh biomass; λprim,devolatilized … balances are fully closed, with minimal deviations in composition.
effective stoichiometric air ratio related to primary air and devolatilized biomass Table 4 shows that with the assumptions made both cases (literature
(char is another by-product).
case and FabStove basic variant) have a quite similar stoichiometric air
TLUD experiment James FabStove CFD simulation ratio and a comparable product gas composition. In addition to CO, CO2,
et al. [18] air flow 8 basic variant /variant 1-
H2, H2O and N2 from the air, the product gas has a high share of py­
l⋅min-1 I/NI
rolysis products, including tars or CH4, which is typical for similar
fresh biomass softwood chipsa softwood pelletsa reactor configurations such as updraft gasifiers [20] or the conversion of
water content m% 7.9b 7.0c
wood logs in stoves [21,22].
w.b.
C m% d. 50.0 50.0
b. 2.4.3. CFD model configurations of reactive flow and heat transfer
H m% d. 6.1 6.1 The overall CFD models for cookstoves were set up from submodels
b.
for flow, turbulence, gas phase combustion and heat transfer, and are
O m% d. 43.3 43.3
b. based on previous work by the authors on small boilers and chimney
N m% d. 0.1 0.1 stoves.
b. In general, for such complex, interrelated thermochemical processes
Ash m% d. 0.5 0.5 as in cookstoves, verification of the overall model for the intended
b.
application, as in the present case, is always done in a final step for a
NCV fresh MJ/ 17.1d 17.4d
biomass kg w. laboratory or real-scale plant to check if the interrelated models together
b. are capable of predicting trends qualitatively correctly and with
biomass kg/h 0.81 0.80 reasonable accuracy. However, validation of such an overall model with
conversion
experiments only at the final targeted application is not sufficient.
rate
char + ash kg/h 0.15 0.09
Verification of such detailed overall models, which consist of a large
production number of submodels, is always based on prior separate validation of the
rate submodels already performed by the developers of the models and other
gas production kg/h 0.66 0.71 groups and published elsewhere. Therefore, the focus of modeling in this
rate
work is on the compilation and adaptation of the submodels and the
primary air kg/h 1.20 1.37
mass flow rate final verification of the overall model based on the experience gained
firepower kW 2.87 3.10 from previous work on biomass combustion plant modeling. Validation
λprim,biomass 0.27 0.31 of each submodel, including flow, turbulence, heat transfer, combustion
0.40 0.39
λprim,devolatilized
models would not be feasible or provide any added value.
product gas
Tar m% 5.47 6.38
In the following, an overview of the submodels of the overall model
w.b. and their coupling is given. In this publication, only the methods, model
CH4 m% 1.27 e
1.65 and reaction mechanism adaptations developed by the authors in this
w.b. work, or models necessary for their understanding, are explained. Un­
H2 m% 0.17 0.22
derlying relevant submodels or model adaptations not developed in this
w.b.
H2O m% 17.94f 12.21 work are referenced accordingly for a detailed explanation of the models
w.b. and their equations, which is not provided here.
CO m% 10.16 12.13 The modelling framework of the unstructured Finite Volume CFD
w.b. solver of ANSYS Fluent R19.2 and a second order discretization of the
CO2 m% 15.61 16.93
w.b.
convective terms was used for the CFD simulations. For a more detailed
N2 m% 49.37 50.48 including the solver methods, discretization schemes and models see the
w.b. theory guide of ANSYS R19.2. In a recent work of the authors, a CFD
a
typical C, H, O, N, Ash composition of softwood pellets with low ash content approach on the development and validation of a transient CFD
from in-house fuel data base, see also Table 3; as the fuel data of the experiments approach for a wood log stove to simulate a whole batch including CO
of James et al. [18] were not representative, the same values were assumed as burnout [22] was published. Based on this work, the RNG k-ε model
for the softwood pellets with the differential viscosity approach, developed by [23] was selected
b
James et al. [18] for moderately turbulent flows, including the enhanced wall treatment
c
in-house fuel data base, see also Table 3 to account for near-wall effects in wall-bound flows. The Discrete Or­
d
based on GCV calculated with Gaur and Reed [51] dinates Model (DOM) extended to unstructured meshes [24] as imple­
e
based on Kirch et al. [19] mented in ANSYS Fluent R19.2 [25] was employed to account for
f
calculated to close mass balance
radiative heat transfer, treating the gas as gray radiator, including the
Weighted-Sum-of-Gray-Gases Model [25] to calculate the effective
the release rates of tar, H2, CO and CO2 (see Table 4). The reason behind emissivity of the gas in dependence of the most relevant components
this is the assumption that, in case of the basic FabStove investigated, CO2 and H2O. Additionally, the influence of soot radiation on the ab­
the primary air volume flow rate was also at a minimum value necessary sorption coefficient of the flame was modelled with an empirical equa­
to maintain the gasification process (assuming 10% of the total air tion as in ANSYS Fluent R19.2 [25].
volume), as it was supplied through a small gap in the bottom of the Gas phase combustion was included and evaluated with two levels of
gasifier. The CH4 content of the product gas is based on Kirch et al. [19] complexity (see chapter 3.2 on verification of the two overall model
and the H2O content is assumed to close the mass balances. It was configurations). The first configuration investigated and evaluated is
verified that the elemental C, H and O balances were closed with a good based on a model employed for comparatively fast case studies and trend
agreement, with errors up to around 5%. analysis within relatively short computing times, the numerical robust
The release rates determined based on these literature data were then and simple EDM by Magnussen and Hjertager [26] extended by global 6-
taken together with the operating data for the cold start WBT and the step reaction kinetics was employed in this work. In the EDM employed,

7
R. Scharler et al. Energy Conversion and Management 247 (2021) 114755

the reaction rate is calculated with the minimum/limiting rate of four
rates: 1) the fuel mixing rate, 2) the oxygen mixing rate, 3) the product
mixing rate, 4) a global kinetic rate. A proportionality constant Amag is
used to relate turbulent eddy decay and mixing to reaction rates, and
this constant is generally adapted to the particular application. The EDM
is well applicable to investigate trends concerning flue gas burnout with
moderate complexity (e.g. in mainly mixing limited processes) with
short computing times (for a comprehensive validation for furnaces and
stoves see Scharler et al. [22,27]). It is therefore commonly applied for
comprehensive case studies and was also used in this work in a first step
to quickly investigate sensitivities on changed design parameters.
A 6-step reaction mechanism (Table 5) considering the most relevant
species (tar, C2H4, CH4, O2, CO, CO2, H2, H2O and soot) was used
together with the EDM in this study. It contains a global CO oxidation
rate adapted for the low temperature range by Scharler et al. [22].
Moreover, a volume based soot oxidation rate was derived from a sur­
face reaction rate [28] by assuming a constant diameter of the soot
particles (see Table 5 for further details and references on the reaction
steps). The stoichiometric of tar cracking is based on Anca-Couce et al.
[29] and it includes soot and C2H4 as products that were not considered
in [22] as a simplification. However, the EDM is not able to account for
the influence of turbulence on multi-step chemistry. Moreover, the
constant Amag determining the mixing rate has to be modified based on
the application (see also [22]). In this work, it was determined as a result
of the validation of the basic stove with wood pellets with the WBT that a
value of Amag = 1.8 gives the best overall agreement with the average CO
emission measurements.
Due to rapid cooling of the gas as it exits the cookstove, it is assumed
that a more detailed description of the gas combustion process if an
improved prediction of flue gas burnout and CO emissions is needed.
Therefore, as the second model configuration, for a more in-depth
combustion process investigation, but with considerably larger
computing times at the same computer (2–3 days instead of half day in
this work) an advancement of the EDM, the Eddy Dissipation Concept
(EDC) [37] as it is implemented in ANSYS Fluent [25,38], was
Table 5
Kinetics of global 6-step gas phase reaction scheme employed with the EDM.
C2.35 H3.97 O1.53 (tar)→0.30C2 H4 + 0.25CH4 + 0.89H2 + 1.21CO + 0.16CO2 +
( )
E
0.13C R = − Aexp
RT
[tar]
additionally evaluated within this work, since it allows to consider the
interaction of turbulence and multi-step chemistry. The EDC assumes
that the reactions take place in the smallest length scales of the turbulent
energy cascade, the “fine structures”, where the fluid is mixed on a
micro-scale. The EDC together with various reduced mechanisms was
validated for biomass combustion plants in previous works of the
author. Examples are e.g. [39] on modelling of flames with the EDC and
different mechanisms regarding gas combustion and NOx formation
under conditions in biomass furnaces and the comparison with other
models and [40] including the verification of the EDC together with
skeletal reaction mechanism regarding the prediction of NOx formation
in a small biomass grate furnace.
In this work, the reduced DRM 22 mechanism for methane oxidation
including 22 species and 104 reactions (see Table 6) validated in a
previous work of the author for gas combustion under conditions in
biomass furnaces [41] was extended (see Table 6) and applied together
with the EDC. The same reaction step for thermal tar cracking as the
EDM was employed and in addition, two surface reactions for soot
oxidation with O2 and OH radicals [42] were transferred to volumetric
rates by assuming constant soot particle diameters (for further details
see Table 6) and combined with the DRM 22 scheme.
Additionally, a scalar transport equation of the mean age of air
[43,44] was adapted for multi-component gas mixtures and included in
ANSYS Fluent R19.2, in order to calculate gas residence times in the
combustion chamber of the cookstove.
2.4.4. Setup of operating data of simulated cases
Simulations were performed with wood pellets as fuel; in a first step,
for the basic variant of the FabStove, and in a second step, for an
improved version V1 (V1-I with insulation and V1-NI without insulation
of the tube) derived based on the WBT and the simulation of the basic
version (see Table 7).
The steady-state operating case of the basic variant was derived with
mean values the WBT results. The average firepower was calculated with
mass loss of the fuel during the batch time and the estimated NCV of the
product gas (see Table 4).
The air flow through the improved variant V1 is reduced, as the
additional combustion chamber causes a slightly higher pressure loss,
which occurs after the mixing with secondary air, and the expected
change in the combustion air supply is relatively small. Thus, it was
assumed that the air ratios remain constant (and the product gas

A, 1/s E, J / kmol Ref.: stoichiometry: [29]

K
Table 6
4.26e + 06 1.08e + 08 kinetics: [30]
( ) Kinetic scheme of extended DRM22 mechanism employed with the EDC (24
E
C2 H4 + 2O2 →2CO + 2H2 O R = − Aexp [C2H4]0.1 [O2 ]1.65 species and 107 reactions).
RT
3
A, (m / E, J / kmol Ref.:
C2.35 H3.97 O1.53 (tar)→0.30C2 H4 + 0.25CH4 + 0.89H2 + 1.21CO + 0.16CO2 +
kmol)0.75 / s K ( )
E
1.35e + 10 1.2552e + [31] 0.13CR = − Aexp [tar]
RT
08 A, 1/s E, J / kmol Ref: stoichiometry: [29]
( )
E K
CH4 +O2 →CO +H2 +H2 O R = − Aexp [CH4]0.7 [O2 ]0.8
RT 4.26e + 06 1.08e + kinetics: [30]
A, (m3 / E, J / kmol Ref: stoichiometry: [22] based
08
kmol)0.5 / s K ( )
E
5.012e + 11 2.0e + 08 on [32], kinetics: [31,33] C(soot, O2 ) +0.5O2 →CO R = − AT0.5 exp [C(s)][O2 ]
( ) RT
E A, m /3
E, J / kmol Ref: derived from [42] with constant soot particle
C(soot) +0.5O2 →CO R = − AT0.5 exp [C(s)][O2 ]
RT kmol s K diameter = 40 nm based on [34]
A, m3 / kmol s E, J / kmol
6.68e + 08 1.644e +
K Ref: derived from [28] with constant soot particle
08
9e + 09 1.636e + diameter = 40 nm based on [34]
C(soot, OH) + OH→CO + 0.5H2 R = − AT0.5 [C(s)][OH]
08
( )
E A, m3 / E, J / kmol Ref: derived from [42] with constant soot particle
CO +0.5O2 →CO2 R = − Aexp [CO][H2 O]0.5 [O2 ]0.5 kmol s K diameter = 40 nm based on [34]
RT
3
A, m / kmol s E, J / kmol Ref.: 1.03e + 06 0
K DRM 22: reduced methane oxidation mechanism with 22 species and 104 reactions
2.03e + 11 1.28e + 08 [22] Species: H2, H, O, O2, OH, Ref: [45], reduced mech. derived from detailed GRI-
( )
E H2O, HO2, H2O2, CH2, mech 2.1 with 30 species and [46,47]
H2 +0.5O2 →H2 O R = − Aexp [H2 ][O2 ]
RT CH2(S), CH3, CH4, CO,
A, m3 / kmol s E, J / kmol Ref.: CO2, HCO, CH2O,
K CH3O, C2H2, C2H3,
9.87e + 08 3.1e + 07 [35,36] C2H4, C2H5, C2H6

8
R. Scharler et al. Energy Conversion and Management 247 (2021) 114755

Table 7 3. Results and discussion of TLUD cookstove analysis and

Key parameters of steady-state operating cases derived based on water boiling optimization
pre-investigations with wood pellets; Variant 1-I/NI…improved stove variant
with combustion chamber tube-insulated/not insulated; λtotal,test_rig ⋅⋅⋅ stoichio­ 3.1. Evaluation of basic concept with cold start WBT
metric air ratio related to the total air mass flow exiting the test rig and the
devolatilized biomass; λtotal,stove⋅⋅⋅stoichiometric air ratio related to the effective
The WBT with the basic stove concept exhibited a relatively constant
air mass flowing through the cookstove and the devolatilized biomass; λprim,
oxygen concentration in the flue gas from about 3 min after the start,
devolatilized ⋅⋅⋅stoichiometric air ratio related to the primary air and the devola­
tilized biomass. with an average of 12 vol% O2 d.b., as shown in Fig. 5. This can be
explained by the fact that the stove fan creates a pressure force that is
basic variant variant
significantly less dependent on the combustion process and the density
V1-I/NIa difference between the gas in the stove and the ambient air than with
natural convection [22].
firepower W 3095 2765
adiabatic flame temperature ◦
C 1073 1073
The CO emissions measured (see Fig. 5 and Table 8) showed that the
λtotal,test_rig 2.32 2.32 potential of a forced draft cookstove could not be fully exploited. Even
λtotal,stove 2.30 2.30 though the values are lower than for most of the cookstoves investigated
λprim,devolatilized 0.39 0.39 by Jetter et al. [4], the best devices have CO emissions, which are more
primary air kg/h 1.37 1.22
than a factor 2 smaller than of the FabStove (see comparison in chapter
secondary air kg/h 6.88 6.15
bypass air kg/h 0.07 0.06 3.5). Moreover, as a benchmark for a maximum potential of flue gas
released gas (devolatilized biomass) kg/h 0.71 0.63 burnout of wood pellet combustion, CO emissions of forced draft pellet
flue gas totalb kg/h 9.03 8.07 boilers and stoves for residential heating have values < 100–200 mg/
O2 chimney vol% d.b. 12.0 12.0
MJdel (see also Fig. 1). One identified reason is the small amount of
O2 chimney vol% w.b. 11.0 11.0
H2O chimney vol% w.b. 8.7 8.7
primary air supplied by a gap at the bottom of the stove, which limits
CO2 chimney vol% w.b. 7.8 7.8 conversion of the fuel and firepower (as later proven by a comparison
a with the optimized version V2 of the cookstove in section 3.4).
as it was assumed that the stoichiometric ratios of the basic stove variant and
This leads to the release of a larger fraction of tars (see [18,19] and
variants 1-I/NI are identical, the same product gas composition was assumed for
both operating cases (see Table 4) chapter 2.4.2) as well as a lower level of tar cracking and partial
b
flue gas total (mass flow rate) = released gas + total air; total air = total mass oxidation of the product gas. As a result, CO emissions rise continuously
flow rate of air entering the test stand = primary air + secondary air + bypass air after the minimum following the ignition phase, because the longer the
(bypassing the cookstove) batch lasts, the greater the distance between the conversion front below
the ash layer and the secondary air nozzles, which can partially
composition – see Table 4) and all mass flow rates and the firepower are compensate for the lack of air in the bed by means of a backflow.
reduced by the same factor (see Table 7). The reduction of the mass flow However, the main reason of the elevated CO emissions is assumed to be
rates was iteratively determined by matching the simulated pressure loss the fact that the secondary air nozzles are positioned only about 1 cm
for variant V1-NI (influence of simulation on pressure loss was neglec­ below the cookstove outlet (see Fig. 2), which leads to a quick extinction
ted, thus the same mass flow rates were applied for V1-I) to the fan of the flame after leaving the combustion chamber and thus to a poor
characteristics (see Fig. 6 in section 3.2). flue gas burnout.

3.2. Verification of overall CFD models for cookstove optimization

The CFD submodels, which have been extensively validated by their

developers and additionally tested and evaluated in previous works of
the author for various biomass furnaces, have been verified here for

Fig. 5. Time history of CO emissions and O2 concentrations for cold start WBT experiments with wood pellets (pre-investigations) of the basic variant of the
FabStove, std m3 at standard conditions (pressure = 101325 Pa; temperature = 0 ◦ C).

9
R. Scharler et al.
Fig. 6. Measured pressure – volume flow rate characteristics of air fan and operating points for basic stove and stove V1 (evaluated with CFD simulation of pressure
loss); solid red and green lines with arrows: air volume flow rate and air pressure of the operating points of the investigated stoves; dashed lines: estimated pressure
loss curves using CFD simulations of discrete operating points.
Table 8
Summary of cold start WBT for basic variant of the FabStove with wood pellets;
std m3 at standard conditions (pressure = 101325 Pa; temperature = 0 ◦ C).
Unit Value
CO emissions g / std m3, 13% O2 1.3
g / MJdel 2.3
Time to boil min 30
Firepower kW 3.1
Efficiency % 36.5
cookstove applications with the WBT of the basic variant with wood
pellets described in section 3.1. The simulations were also used for an in-
depth process analysis of the cookstove together with the WBT in­
vestigations. Based on these investigations it was decided to evaluate
with a CFD simulation the potential of an extension of the combustion
chamber by a 13 cm tube (with and without insulation) placed on the
stove for an improved flue gas burnout. A detailed process analysis of
turbulent flow, residence times, gas phase combustion and heat transfer
in the stove was performed including the EDM together with a global 6-
step reaction mechanism (results see Fig. 7 to Fig. 9), and additionally
with the EDC and the extended skeletal DRM22 mechanism (with 24
species and 107 reactions) to predict CO emissions with higher
reliability.
The flow rates of secondary air and total air determined for the basic
variant according to section 2.4.4 were within the course of model
validation cross-checked by comparing the simulated pressure loss over
secondary air supply and combustion chamber with the fan character­
istics (see Fig. 6). The pressing of the fan at the operation point with the
calculated air flow rate in Fig. 6 matches the CFD simulated pressure loss
of around 35 Pa excellently with a deviation of < 0.5 Pa.
As explained in section 2.4.3, the parameter Amag of the EDM
determining the mixing rate of the combusting species, has to be
adjusted to the application. While the value originally derived by
Magnussen and Hjertager for gas flames is 4 [26], the author used in
previous studies for the simulation of biomass fixed-bed furnaces with a
global 3-step scheme without consideration of tar and only with a ki­
netics for CO oxidation values < 2, with the best agreement with mea­
surements for a range between 0.6 and 1 [27]. The validation in this
work yielded a value of 1.8 which gave a reasonable agreement with the
averaged CO emissions measured for the basic variant (see Table 9), and
therefore, was employed for all further simulations with the EDM.
10
Energy Conversion and Management 247 (2021) 114755
The validation of the EDC with the extended DRM22 mechanisms
yielded a good agreement with the measured CO emissions without
model parameter adjustment (Table 9) and furthermore qualitatively
quite similar results concerning flow, temperature and main combustion
species as the simulations with the EDM.
The CFD analysis of the basic stove showed a good mixing of the
product gas with air due to the high exit momentum of the secondary air
jets. However, due to position of the nozzles, the flame with a high peak
temperature (1400 – 1500 ◦ C) rapidly cooled down when exiting the
stove, whereas this effect is amplified by the water pot above. To achieve
an effective flue gas burnout, temperatures > 750 – 800 ◦ C are needed.
However, due to rapid flame quenching, the simulated gas residence
time > 750 ◦ C after air injection is < 0.03 s (see Fig. 8), which is
significantly too low to achieve an efficient tar cracking and gas com­
bustion. As an effect, the CO emissions are comparably high (see Fig. 8
and Table 9).
As the additional combustion chamber of variant V1-NI (influence of
simulation on pressure loss was neglected) causes a slightly higher
pressure loss, also the air flow through the stove is slightly reduced and
the reduction of the mass flow rates was with CFD simulations iteratively
determined by matching the simulated pressure loss to the fan charac­
teristics (see Fig. 6 and section 2.4.4).
Variant V1 with the additional combustion chamber tube yielded a
significant increase of the average gas residence time at a temperature >
750 ◦ C with 0.14 s without insulation (V1-NI) and 0.21 s with insulation
(V1-I), whereas the latter value is close to the range of modern small-
scale biomass furnaces for residential heating. According to experience
with CFD-supported design, approx. 0.2–0.5 s can be achieved for small
boilers, which is lower than for typical furnaces in the medium to large
size range with 0.5 to 1.0 s [48,49] due to a significantly larger relative
area of the cooling boiler walls, but is sufficient due to an optimized air
staging and mixing of the product gas with the combustion air (see e.g.
[50]).
The result of the higher residence time for V1 is an efficient tar
cracking (see Fig. 8) and flue gas burnout according to the simulations. A
reduction in the CO emissions compared to the basic variant by approx.
62% without insulation and 75% with insulation was achieved for the
steady-state simulations. Hence it can be concluded, that a sufficiently
large and insulated combustion chamber is necessary to yield a
reasonable gas residence time after air injection at appropriate tem­
peratures for an efficient flue gas burnout (>0.15 s). It is important to
note that it should be avoided that the insulation of the stove has a large
R. Scharler et al. Energy Conversion and Management 247 (2021) 114755

Fig. 7. CFD simulation results for FabStove - basic stove (left) and variant V1-NI (right): gas velocity (top), O2 mole fraction w.b. (centre) and gas temperature (bottom).

11
R. Scharler et al.
Table 9
Summary of CO emissions in mg/std m3 d.b., 13% O2 for basic stove variant and
improved variants V1-I / NI (with / without insulation) for wood pellets; std m3
at standard conditions (pressure = 101325 Pa; temperature = 0 ◦ C); n.a. - not
available.
basic stove improved V1-I improved V1-NI
simulated EDM 1570 280 400
simulated EDC 1440 350 550
measured (average) 1297 n.a. n.a.
density and heat capacity which could lead to an undesired thermal
inertia for the cold start tests and, if the combustion chamber is ther­
mally connected with the gasifier, that it is too hot, leading to a too rapid
release of product gas and a too high firepower after a few batches. The
heat transfer from the cookstove to the pot was analyzed, whereas the
simulated value of 42% for the basic stove (see Fig. 9) is in a typical
range for cookstoves according to literature (see Fig. 14) and is about
15% higher than the mean measured value (36.5%).
This can be attributed to the comparison of a steady-state simulation
based on average values and position of the bed and cookpot tempera­
ture at about 8 min batch time, while the measured value is based on
averaging data from a transient process with a reduced heat transfer
towards the end of the batch. This indicates a reasonable agreement
between experiment and simulation.
The CFD simulations show that only on the bottom of the pot sig­
nificant heat transfer occurs. An improved thermal efficiency would be
possible by a ring (skirt) on the frame, directing the flue gas upwards
around the pot. In addition, for V1 a reduced heat transfer was predicted
due to the narrowing of the flue gas flow through gaps at the top of the
tube, resulting in a reduced effective heat transfer surface. However, the
effect is not relevant, as this variant was only intended as a quick interim
solution and the finally optimized variant V2 was designed differently
for practical reasons. It is noticeable, however, that the insulation of the
combustion chamber of V1 not only improves the flue gas burnout, but
also increases the efficiency by reducing heat losses.
Finally, it can be concluded from the model checks that both models
are capable of predicting trends in flow and heat transfer. While the
simpler approach with the EDM and a global reaction scheme requires
adjustment of the model constants to match the measured CO emissions,
the EDC with the comprehensive extended DRM 22 reaction scheme
provides deeper insight into the gas combustion process and matches the
measured CO emissions without the need to modify the model. Thus, the
configuration with the EDM and the global mechanism can be used for
design studies and the variant with the EDC and the extended DRM 22
mechanism can be used for a targeted more detailed analysis of gas
combustion.
3.3. Evaluation of basic vs. Improved stove V1 for rice hull pellets with
WBT
The variant V1, improved by means of CFD, was realized by placing a
steel tube insulated with rock wool on the stove and examined for rice
hull pellets (see Table 3) by a cold start WBT in comparison to the basic
stove. On the one hand, the experiments were carried out as an addi­
tional step of model validation to verify whether the improvements
achieved for variant V1 by CFD are qualitatively reproducible by WBT
experiments. Furthermore, it was investigated whether similar results
regarding CO emissions can be achieved for agricultural residues with
lower energy density as for wood pellets. The average firepower of the
basic stove with rice hull pellets was about 20% lower (2.5 kW) than for
wood pellets due to the reduced energy density of the fuel. This led to
lower flame temperatures and a reduced heat transfer to the water pot, i.
e. a lower efficiency (see Table 10). Furthermore, the time-trends of the
CO emissions for rice hull pellets (see Fig. 10) were similar to wood
pellets (comp. Fig. 5) with values increasing with time due to a limited
12
Energy Conversion and Management 247 (2021) 114755
amount of supplied primary air and an insufficiently small combustion
chamber.
The average CO emissions in g/std m3 are about 25% larger for rice
hull pellets than for wood pellets (see Table 10) due to lower tempera­
tures in the combustion chambers. Related to g/MJdel, the increase is
even greater, since this value is additionally dependent on the efficiency,
which is lower for rice hull pellets. The improved variant V1 with a
larger combustion chamber lead to a significantly flatter CO time-trend
with a slight increase in the last phase of the batch in the char com­
bustion phase. An average reduction in CO emissions by a factor of 2
could be achieved, temporarily even by a factor of 3 to 5. This shows that
the improvement achieved by a steady-state CFD analysis for wood
pellets (see Table 9) with a 75% reduction in CO emissions was suc­
cessfully implemented in a test stove and validated for rice hull pellets
(see Table 10). In the WBT, an average 50% reduction in emissions was
achieved, which is of a similar order of magnitude as for the CFD sim­
ulations and shows good qualitative agreement of the results. The trend
of efficiency reduction of V1-I (4% on average, see Table 10) could also
be reproduced with the CFD simulations (approx. 2%, cf. Fig. 9). How­
ever, the provisionally improved version V1-I cannot exploit the full
potential of the new FabStove for efficient flue gas burnout. On the one
hand, as with the basic variant, too few primary air is supplied and, in
addition, the combustion chamber extension is an insulated tube that is
placed on top of the cookstove, which leads to a potentially high false air
flow.
3.4. Evaluation of optimized stove V2 for WBT with wood and rice hull
pellets
An optimized variant V2 was developed based on the results for V1
and investigated by WBT. V2 includes an integrated extension of the
combustion chamber above the secondary air nozzles and the rack
height by 10 cm each (distance between secondary air nozzles and
bottom of pot = 13 cm). Furthermore, to enable a higher firepower, a
more stable biomass gasification and an efficient tar cracking, additional
primary air nozzles are implemented. The measured mean CO emissions
for the cold start WBT of V2 with wood and rice hull pellets are shown in
comparison to results for the basic stove and V1 for a first evaluation of
the new low-emission TLUD technology (see Fig. 11). Additional time-
trends of the emission measurements during the WBT of the optimized
cookstove V2 with wood pellets are shown in comparison with the
corresponding results for the basic variant to highlight the improved
combustion behavior of V2 (see Fig. 12).
The comparison of the time curves of CO emissions for wood pellets
shows that the modifications of V2 lead to a significantly more stable
combustion behavior than the basic variant with a good reproducibility
of the results. The CO emission curves of V2 are virtually flat after the
ignition peak to virtually the end of the batch when charcoal burnout
begins, with extremely low values mostly below 200 mg/std m3, 13 vol
% O2.
As a consequence, the average CO emissions of V2 significantly
dropped to about 100 mg/ std m3 d.b., 13 vol% O2 for both fuels. This
means a reduction by a factor between 13 for wood pellets and 16 for
rice hull pellets in comparison to the basic stove concept. Even
compared to the improved variant V1, a reduction by 700 mg/ std m3 d.
b., 13 vol% O2 could be achieved by directly integrating the combustion
chamber in the stove and an improved primary air supply. This
confirmed that the potential for efficient flue gas burnout with V2 can be
fully exploited by supplying a higher primary air flow rate and inte­
grating the combustion chamber extension into the stove. It is noted that
with the values achieved for the most critical cold start conditions, CO
emissions were already close to the ones of automatic modern pellet
boilers (compare Fig. 1 in section 1). As it was shown in section 3 of the
supplementary material, there is a direct correlation between CO and
other products from incomplete combustion. Hence, it can be concluded
that the optimized version V2 of the investigated FabStove TLUD with
R. Scharler et al. Energy Conversion and Management 247 (2021) 114755

Fig. 8. CFD results for FabStove - basic stove (left) and variant V1-NI (right): gas residence time after secondary air injection > 750 ◦ C (top), tar mass fraction w.b.
(centre) and CO concentration (bottom).

13
R. Scharler et al. Energy Conversion and Management 247 (2021) 114755

Fig. 9. CFD results for FabStove - basic stove (left) and variant V1-NI (right): heat flux in W/m2.

an efficient flue gas burnout should also have minimum VOC and fine
Table 10
particle / soot emissions. This is particularly important for the com­
Summary of cold start WBT results for basic FabStove (with wood and rice hull
bustion of agricultural residues with high chlorine content such as rice
pellets) and improved variant VI-I (with insulation) with rice hull pellets; std m3
at standard conditions (pressure = 101325 Pa; temperature = 0 ◦ C).
hull pellets (see Table 3) in order to burn out potentially higher dioxin
concentrations in the flue gas. This should be however confirmed in
Unit basic stove basic stove rice impr. V1-I rice
future work. A further advantage of the optimized variant V2 is that due
wood pellets hull pellets hull pellets
to the improved primary air supply, a significant increase in firepower of
CO g / std m3, 1.3 1.6 0.8 around 60% (see Fig. 5) and thus a reduction in cooking time (see
13% O2
g / MJdel 2.3 3.3 1.7
Fig. 12) was observed for wood and rice hull pellets. However, as shown
Time to min 30 29.5 30 in section 3.5, this does not lead to a significant reduction of efficiency.
boil
Firepower kW 3.1 2.5 2.4
Efficiency % 36.5 31.3 30.8 3.5. Comparison of FabStove WBT experiments with literature data

A comparison of the FabStove WBT for pellets with cold start WBT

Fig. 10. CO emission history for cold start WBT experiments with rice hull pellets; basic stove TR1 / TR2…basic stove variant test run 1 / 2; impr. stove V1-I TR1 /
2…improved variant V1-I, tube insulated, test run 1 / 2; for the basic stove and test run 1 / 2 only a part of the measurements could be used due to a blockage of the
filter with fine particles; std m3 at standard conditions (pressure = 101325 Pa; temp. = 0 ◦ C).

14
R. Scharler et al. Energy Conversion and Management 247 (2021) 114755

Fig. 11. Average measured CO emissions (left) and firepower (right) of cold start high power WBT for different versions of FabStove, wood pellets and rice hull pellets;
basic…basic stove/variant; impr. V1…improved stove variant V1; opt. V2…optimized stove variant V2; CO emissions are shown in mg/ std m3 d.b., 13 vol% O2 to
enable a comparison independent from the efficiency; all WBT performed with two repetition with exception of the initial basic stove test for wood pellets (1 test); std
m3 at standard conditions (pressure = 101325 Pa; temperature = 0 ◦ C).

Fig. 12. CO emission history for cold start WBT experiments with wood pellets; basic stove TR1…basic stove variant test run 1; opt. stove V2 TR1 / 2…optimized
stove variant V2, test run 1 /2; std m3 at standard conditions (pressure = 101325 Pa; temp. = 0 ◦ C).

results from Jetter et al. [4] for various traditional cooking devices,
Fig. 13. Photo of improved natural draft Awamu stove with insulated post-
combustion chamber tube and water pot on top in operation (left); Scheme of
Awamu stove (right) with insulated post-combustion chamber tube (improve­
ment: green parts) on basic stove [16]
rocket stoves and TLUD stoves, all operated with dry charcoal or wood
(Fig. 14), was performed in order to evaluate the optimized FabStove in
comparison to common traditional and improved cookstoves. Moreover,
results of a previous work of the authors on a ND-TLUD stove (Awamu)
[16] operated with wood chips, which was also adapted by extending
the combustion chamber with a tube (see Fig. 13), were integrated in the
comparison (see Fig. 14).
It could be shown that already the basic FabStove has lower CO
emissions than most of the TLUD stoves and all other stoves, with the
highest values of the charcoal stoves, followed by the traditional cooking
devices fired with wood and finally the rocket stoves. This can be
attributed to the advantages of a stove operation with a fan and the
combustion behavior of TLUD micro-gasifiers (see section 4 of supple­
mentary material). There is only one further FD-TLUD stove (Philips
HD4012 fan) with lower CO emissions than the basic FabStove in [4].
The optimized FabStove makes full use of the potential of a FD-TLUD
by an improved primary air supply and, most important, a combustion
chamber with sufficient residence time at suitable temperatures for an
efficient flue gas burnout and has CO emissions of 65 mg/MJfuel (value
independent from efficiency), which are about a factor 10 lower than the
best stoves investigated by Jetter et al. (500–600 mg/MJfuel for the
StoveTec TLUD and the Philips HD4012 fan). Comparing the CO values

15
R. Scharler et al.
Fig. 14. Comparison of cold start WBT results for FabStove (basic and optimized variant V2) operated with wood pellets and Awamu (original and improved) [16]
(CO emissions for the Awamu stove reported in [51] were corrected for this publication as an error in the air mass flow rate measurements was detected) with
literature data according to Jetter et al. [4]
in mg/MJdel, the reduction factor is 5 in comparison to the StoveTec
TLUD due to its extraordinarily high efficiency with nearly 54%, while
the investigated FabStove had no skirt and hence an efficiency of 31%,
which is in a typical range for improved stoves without this device.
Other cookstoves with efficiencies ≥ 35% investigated by Jetter et al.
were as well equipped with skirts, such as the rocket stoves Berkeley
Dafur and Evirofit G-3300, the StoveTec GreenFire and the charcoal
stove StoveTec (see Fig. 14). This confirms the finding of the CFD
simulation that without a deflection, i.e. a ring directing the hot flue gas
towards the cookpot, the major heat transfer is limited to its bottom and
the efficiency is inherently low. As explained before, a higher efficiency
would additionally reduce the CO emissions during cooking since more
energy per fuel mass can be utilized. Hence, a detailed WBT with the
optimized stove (including also hot start and simmering experiments)
and a skirt for the optimization of the efficiency will be targeted in future
work.
Furthermore, the comparison with the results for the Awamu (ND-
TLUD) shows, that also in this case, a simple enlargement of the com­
bustion chamber by an insulated tube leads to a significant reduction of
CO emissions, from 12.5 g/MJdel which is one of the highest values of
the advanced cookstoves investigated, by a factor of 4 to 3.1 g/MJdel,
which is already in the lower range of the rocket and TLUD stoves
investigated for dry fuels.
This shows the importance of a sufficiently large combustion
chamber to achieve an efficient flue gas burnout. Furthermore, the
comparison of the Awamu (ND-TLUD) with the FabStove (FD-TLUD) for
both the basic and the optimized variant V2 shows that with a fan for air
supply a potentially significantly stronger emission reduction from
incomplete combustion can be achieved.
4. Conclusions
In this work a cookstove stove was successfully developed and
optimized regarding flue gas burnout by a novel multi-step design
16
Energy Conversion and Management 247 (2021) 114755
method including WBT experiments and targeted CFD analyses with a
detailed CFD overall model.
The combined overall CFD routines with a detailed description of
flow, turbulence, heat transfer and the optional use of two different
combustion models with different degrees of complexity were success­
fully investigated for their applicability for cookstove development and
optimization with the WBT. It was shown that for the configuration with
a global reaction mechanism, the trends in terms of flow, combustion
and heat transfer can be correctly predicted in comparatively short
computation times. It can therefore be used for design studies. The other
configuration, using for the first time a comprehensive reaction mech­
anism with 24 species and 107 reactions, was shown to be suitable for
predicting the complex process of CO burnout without parameter
modifications, thus allowing a more detailed analysis of gas combustion
and emission formation, although this model leads to longer
computation.
A top-lit updraft (TLUD) gasifier equipped with a fan for air supply
was pre-selected based on combustion principles as technology with the
highest potential to achieve low flue gas emissions from incomplete
combustion (VOC, CO and soot). Moreover, it was decided to operate the
cookstove with pellets, as it enables to effectively combust even agri­
cultural residues with low energy densities due to the compacted fuel.
Detailed CFD simulations of flow, gas phase combustion and heat
transfer showed that in the basic stove concept the product gas is rapidly
cooled after air injection, since the secondary air nozzles are placed close
to the stove exit leading to quenching of the flame and relatively high CO
emissions. The WBT for the optimized variant showed CO emissions <
0.2 g/MJdel for wood and rice hull pellets, which corresponds to a
reduction by a factor of about 15 to 20 compared to the basic stove
concept. Furthermore, these values are between 5 and 10 times lower
than cold start WBT results of best performing cookstoves investigated in
literature. The investigations performed for the FabStove (FD-TLUD), a
previous work of the authors on the improvement of the CO burnout of a
ND-TLUD and a comparison with the design of the stoves from literature
R. Scharler et al.
shows the high importance of a sufficiently large combustion chamber to
increase residence time and reduce gas temperature drop to avoid high
emissions from incomplete combustion. This recommendation can be
implemented for all kind of stoves e.g. with an insulated tube and is the
simplest and an effective method for emission reduction. A further
important finding of this work is that with a cheap coaxial fan for air
supply natural draft stoves can be clearly outperformed in terms of
emission reduction, stability of operation and reduction of cooking
times. CO emissions which are even close to values of modern automatic
pellet furnaces can be achieved. In addition, a great potential for
improving cooking efficiency by designing a flame skirt surrounding the
cooking pot has been identified. The investigation of the skirt and
comprehensive WBT of the stove for wood and rice hull pellets are the
subject of current research. Further research should also aim at the
investigation of dioxin emissions resulting from the incineration of
agricultural residues with high chlorine content (e.g. rice hulls, straw). It
can be concluded that a fundamental process analysis with the novel
combined multi-step optimization method based on WBT experiments
and comprehensive CFD simulations can lead to a significant improve­
ment of low-cost cookstoves reducing the emissions of the currently best
performing devices by one order of magnitude.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Robert Scharler: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Validation,
Writing - original draft. Georg Archan: Investigation, Writing - review
& editing. Christian Rakos: Conceptualization, Writing - review &
editing. Lukas von Berg: Resources. Dave Lello: Conceptualization,
Resources, Writing - review & editing. Christoph Hochenauer: Re­
sources. Andrés Anca-Couce: Conceptualization, Formal analysis,
Validation, Writing - review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
The work of several enthusiastic students in student projects (Mario
Blehrmühlhuber, Pablo García-Ramos, Jurij Gregorc and Leonhard
Pölzer) or their bachelor theses (Benjamin Bek, Stefan Nusser), who
have contributed by supporting the experiments, is highly appreciated.
Furthermore, the authors would like to thank Christian and Erwin Stu­
benschrott from KWB - Kraft und Wärme aus Biomasse GmbH as well as
Michael Keinrath, the founder of the cookstove development start-up
Semina, for their support in constructing and manufacturing cook­
stove test units at different stages of the project.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.enconman.2021.114755.
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