Design And Fabrication of a Domestic Biogas Unit for Cooking Applications

This paper presents the design and fabrication of a domestic biogas unit by using daily organic waste for cooking. Basically, this unit consists a gas storage unit and a digester barrel. Initially, the organic wastes including kitchen wastes were deposited into the digester barrel which contains water with pH 6 once in every two days for two weeks. Then the mix started to produce biogas when the pH value reached around 6.8-7.5. After that food wastes were added slowly every day. When this step is continued further, the daily collection of biogases is 50 liters. As the digestate of this anaerobic digester is rich in nutrients this is also a good organic fertilizer for plants in the home garden. Also, this unit is designed and fabricated with easy maintenance and usage. Further, it is very much beneficial to dispose biodegradable kitchen wastes in an eco-friendly manner. In order to answer the energy demand in domestic level, it is highly essential to utilize the daily organic waste as a source of energy and produce methane as an alternative solution for cooking-energy requirement.

Cultural and Economic Barriers in Switching to Clean Cooking Energy: Does Women’s Agency Make a Difference?

The major objective of this study is to identify and analyze cultural and economic barriers to sustained adoption of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) as the primary clean cooking energy in India, and examining underpinning values and norms in socio-technical energy system of the country. In 2016, the Government of India introduced a mega scheme called Ujjwala for clean cooking energy with LPG connects in women’s name. This policy, however, experienced limited implementation, but did lead to enhancing women’s agency in many areas. Women’s agency is defined briefly as their ability to set goals, develop capacities, and act on their defined goals to realize desired outcomes in wellbeing and capabilities. In the case of switching to clean cooking energy, the question can be posed as: as women are the ones who carry out most of the onerous work of collecting and cooking with wood, are they able to make decisions on the adoption of clean cooking fuel, that enhance their agency and the wellbeing of their families? Male-centred cultural and economic norms can be changed by the exercise of women’s agency, when (1) women have unmediated asset ownership rights to land, houses, and energy technology; (2) they are organized in groups for earning cash incomes and energy access; (3) they have acquired new knowledge, skills, and finances to acquire and operate new technologies; and (4) women have experienced the effects of policy change addressing gendered norms.

Determinants of Household Energy Choice for Cooking in Northern Sudan: A Multinomial Logit Estimation

Traditional biomass utilization is connected with negative environmental and human health impacts. However, its transition to cleaner cooking fuels is still low where the household’s fuels preferences play an important role in the process. To examine the factors that influence the household’s cooking fuel choice in Northern Sudan, a multinomial logit model (MNL) was used to analyze data collected from Kassala state in two selected districts, New Halfa and Nahr Atabara. The findings show that the most utilized fuels are still firewood and charcoal, which are used by 63.4% of all respondents. The results also revealed that socioeconomic factors have an impact on household fuel choice, where one additional unit of credit access may boost the possibility of choosing LPG by 22.7%. Furthermore, one additional level of education would reduce 5.4% of charcoal users while simultaneously raising 10% of current liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) users. Therefore, the study suggests initiating mobilization and training programs to raise awareness and encourage the usage of cleaner fuels. This study will provide policymakers with information on household cooking energy utilization while designing and developing policies related to energy. It will also contribute to the expanding body of literature concerning the transition to clean cooking fuels from traditional biomass.

National and Subnational Drivers for Cooking Energy Consumption in Rural India

BackgroundThe energy transition pattern in India highlights that cooking continues to be the weakest link in the energy transition process for rural households. The government is trying to subsidize LPG for rural families to increase usage of LPG in India for a clean cooking energy transition. The paper endeavors to fill the void by revisiting the nature and degree of the rural energy transition for cooking in India. MethodologyUsing a multinomial logit model, the potential drivers at the individual household and group level have been identified. The group effect analysis has been conducted purposely to understand if social and cultural norms or -level factors within a village society affect the cooking energy transition of households in rural India and if that prevails over the income effect. At the sub-national level, an estimate of energy inequality has been derived by applying social choice-based Atkinson Inequality measure to examine the connection between higher energy inequality in primary fuel used for cooking and higher income inequality. In addition, the Brock-Dechert-Scheinkman (BDS) test on firewood consumption has been conducted for poor energy households from 38 districts of Bihar, one of the highest energy-poor states, to statistically examine the perceived nonlinearity in the dynamics of energy transition/fuel choice in cooking for rural households. ResultsThe analysis at the national level indicates the importance of local and cultural factors that leads to the nonlinearity in the probability of the switchover from firewood to other clean fuel options. Conclusions SummaryThe paper highlights if subsidies on modern fuel and/or other cooking alternatives alone drive the transition process and examines the validity of the energy ladder hypothesis in the case of rural cooking energy transition and the drivers of the energy transition at the national and sub-national level. Potential ImplicationsThe state-level analysis done for Bihar and across various districts corroborates this finding and provides an important direction towards local context-specific policy-making in the long term.

Precision cooking for printed foods via multiwavelength lasers

Additive manufacturing of food is a method of creating three-dimensional edible products layer-by-layer. While food printers have been in use since 2007, commercial cooking appliances to simultaneously cook and print food layers do not yet exist. A key challenge has been the spatially controlled delivery of cooking energy. Here, we explore precision laser cooking which offers precise temporal and spatial control over heat delivery and the ability to cook, broil, cut and otherwise transform food products via customized software-driven patterns, including through packaging. Using chicken as a model food, we combine the cooking capabilities of a blue laser (λ = 445 nm), a near-infrared (NIR) laser (λ = 980 nm), and a mid-infrared (MIR) laser (λ = 10.6 μm) to broil printed chicken and find that IR light browns more efficiently than blue light, NIR light can brown and cook foods through packaging, laser-cooked foods experience about 50% less cooking loss than foods broiled in an oven, and calculate the cooking resolution of a laser to be ~1 mm. Infusing software into the cooking process will enable more creative food design, allow individuals to more precisely customize their meals, disintermediate food supply chains, streamline at-home food production, and generate horizontal markets for this burgeoning industry.

Challenges of LPG Supply, Distribution & Pricing in Growing Market: Bangladesh Case Study

The prime energy scarcity is nowadays a mostly the debated issue in Bangladesh in the awaken of spreading energy and fuel crisis. Pipeline natural gas support only 6 % domestic consumption of total population by 16 % of total produced gas which is declined mode. The claim of natural gas is on the continuous increase to meet domestic needs in the city, suburban areas together with industrial, commercial, power generation and diverse usage against the scarcity of gas. The demand for natural gas is on the continuous increase to meet domestic needs in the urban, suburban areas alongside industrial, commercial, power generation and diverse usage against the scarcity of gas. In this situation, LPG becomes a popular alternative energy source to reduce the natural gas crisis along with providing clean fuel in rustic areas. LPG is using by about 81% in its total amount for domestic purposes. At present in 2018 LPG demand in Bangladesh is approximate 750,000 MT and in future 2025 it would be 250, 0000 MT with growth rate 25%, 17 %, 14%, 15 %, 8%, 20% and 17% respectively. Now a day 12 KG LPG cylinders price is BDT 1150-1200 because of the variety of market barriers, government VAT and higher transaction costs which is not affordable for the middle as well as a low-income family though Bangladesh government fixed the price every month. LPG could assume an increasingly significant job in giving cooking energy to low-middle pay family units in Bangladesh if an appropriate advertising structure and circulation plan are masterminded. The aim of this project is to find out the challenges of LPG supply, distribution, and pricing in the growing Bangladesh market and to make a well planned and details road map so that LPG companies of Bangladesh can serve 70% of the domestic cooking fuel through LPG by 2025.