Modeling of household biomass cookstoves: A review

• Nineteen models for household biomass cookstoves are reviewed.
• Cookstove models have three zones: fuel bed, gas phase reaction, and heat transfer.
• The correlations currently used in household cookstove modeling are compiled.
• Validated models with greater detail are needed to support cookstove design.
• Models need to include stove emissions, fuel type, fuel size, and user practice.

This article reviews the cookstove modeling literature for one- to three-burner natural draft, wood-fired cookstoves fueled with solid unprocessed biomass ranging in size from 1 to 20 cm and operated by an individual in a residential setting. These household cookstove models are organized around the three major zones of the cookstove system: the fuel bed, the gas phase reaction zone, and the heat transfer zone. Today's household biomass cookstove models are coupled steady-state models with simplified algebraic relationships for the packed bed; computational fluid dynamics with a four-equation set global reaction scheme for CO2, CO, H2, H2O, and hydrocarbons in the gas phase reaction zone; and generic correlations or computational fluid dynamics models in the heat transfer zone. The current models do not address the production of particulate or other harmful emissions or the effects of fuel tending, varying fuel, or transient operations.