Analysis of Thermal Performance of Improved Wood Burning Stoves Using Different Wood Species Found in Northern Nigeria

The analysis of thermal performance of three different improved wood burning stoves was conducted according to standard laboratory procedures using Tsirir, Marke, Aduwa, Chediya, Kalgo and Kuka fuel woods. The growing gap between availability and demand for firewood, coupled with the scarcity and increasing price of fossil fuels, the poor thermal performance and pollution caused by traditional stoves as a result of burning inappropriate wood species, forced the attention of this work on the thermal characteristics of some of these wood species. Analysis of the results revealed that Kuka exhibited the highest heat content (25.8J/kg) followed by Tsirir (24.0J/kg) with Kalgo having the least calorific value of 15.8J/kg. Also, Kuka exhibited the highest flame temperature of 5100C, while others such as Tsirir, Marke, Kalgo, Chediya and Aduwa has 4780C, 4300C, 3020C, 4360C and 4720C respectively. Oxygen index analyses revealed that Kalgo exhibited the highest value of 32% while others exhibited lower values. In the three stove samples Kuka has the highest fuel consumption rate and Chediya shows the highest combustion temperature in stove 2 and 3. For all stove samples, combustion temperature increases with fuel wood burning duration with stove 2 having the highest fuel wood combustion efficiency in all the fuel wood tested while sample stove 1 and 3 show varying combustion efficiencies. The adoption and largescale propagation of improved wood stoves coupled with utilization of appropriate wood species could help in improving the health of rural and urban users and in making a more efficient utilization of the available firewood resources.