Development and testing of energy efficient and environment friendly porous radiant burner operating on liquefied petroleum gas

In this paper, the design and development of a self-aspirating LPG cooking stove with two-layer porous radiant burner (PRB) are presented. Following the guidelines prescribed in Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) 4246:2002, performances of the LPG stove with PRB have been tested. The maximum thermal efficiency of the PRB in the power range of 1-3 kW is 75.1%, while the respective value of the conventional burner (CB) is 65%. The measured CO and NOx emissions of the newly developed PRB stove are in the ranges 30-140 ppm and 0.2-3.5 ppm, respectively. Whereas the CO and NOx emissions from conventional domestic LPG cooking stoves (1-3 kW) are in the range of 220 ppm to 550 ppm and 5 ppm to 25 ppm, respectively. The maximum temperature difference between the center to the periphery of the PRB is limited to 115 °C. Experiments on the newly developed LPG stove with PRB have been performed over one year and no flash back or flame lift has been observed. As it is self-aspirated, the newly designed PRB works on the natural draft without any safety issues.