Chapter-1

INTRODUCTION

Energy in its various forms is an inevitable component of each and every aspect of
life.In this world any physical activity, whether performed by nature or human beings, is
caused due to the flow of energy from one form to another. Existence of any system is
impossible, without energy. To do any kind of work, energy is required. Output of the work
depends on the input energy. The ability to complete any work depends on the amount of
energy one can utilize. For economic growth and development of a country energy is the
most basic infrastructural input [1].

In other words, Energy is a thermodynamic quantity that is often realized as the

ability of a physical system to do any kind of work. As well as its physical meaning, energy is
vital for our relations with the environment [2].

Around 250 years ago, before the industrial revolution started people were essentially
dependent on animal and manual labour. Energy requirement of humans and animal were met
through food intake. Life was uncomplicated, and the environment was clean and unpolluted.

In 1785, James Watt of Scotland brought the industrial revolution by invention of

steam engine. It was the starting of a mechanical age or the age of machines. In the late
nineteenth century, the invention of the internal combustion engine gave a further momentum
to the trend. The industrial revolution spread out gradually to the whole world. The
commercial induction motor was invented by Nikola Tesla in 1888. Availability of electrical
power started the electrical age.

Due to above reasons there was an increase in the energy consumption by leaps and
bounds. For continual progress of the human civilization energy has been the lifeblood. Thus
the energy consumption also accelerated, with developments in the human living standards
[1].

1.1 Energy scenario of India

The consumption of energy of a nation can be broadly divided into following sectors
depending on energy related activities as industrial sector, agriculture sector, transportation
and domestic sector (houses and offices including commercial buildings).

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 According to the Ministry of Power, Government of India, the Power Sector at a
Glance (all India)is shown in the table 1.1 and 1.2.

TABLE 1.1
TOTAL POWER INSTALLED CAPACITIES AT THE END OF AUGUST 2015 IN INDIA
Sector MW % age
State Sector 96,014.8 34.68
Central Sector 74,171.15 26.79 TABLE
1.2 Private Sector 1,06,596.67 38.52
Total 2,76,782.62 100 POWER
GENERATION BY VARIOUS SOURCESATTHE END OF AUGUST 2015IN INDIA
Fuel MW % age
Total thermal 1,92,534.56 69 .56
(a) Coal 168,207.88 60.77
(b) Gas 23,333.15 8.43
(c) Diesel 993.53 0.35
Nuclear 5,780 2.08
Hydro (Renewable) 41,997.42 15.17
RES** (MNRE) 36,470.64 13.17
Total 2,76,782.62 100
RES** - Renewable energy sources

1.2 Sources of Energy

As energy is polymorphic in nature, it is difficult to define energy comprehensively.

Energy is something which cannot be observed directly. It can be measured or calculated as
per its form.

1.2.1 Energy resources classification

Energy is derived from different sources which can be broadly classified based on
long term availability in two ways.

1. Non-renewable resources: Resources which do not get refilled after their consumption
and also they are finite, are called Non-renewable resources.
Ex: Fossil fuels (such as coal, oil and gas), Uranium, etc.
2. Renewable resources: Resources which are renewed by nature again and again and the
rate of their consumption do not have any effect on their supply are called renewable
resources.
Ex: Solar, Wind, Geo-thermal, Biomass, Ocean (thermal, tidal and wave), Hydro etc.

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 (a) (b)
Fig. 1.1 (a) Non-Renewable resources (b) Renewable resources

1.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of Non-renewable Energy resources

Non-renewable energy resources are conventional fossil fuels such as coal, oil and
gas, which are likely to deplete with time. Their use has following advantages and
disadvantages [1].
Advantages
At present, these are cheaper than renewable resources.
Easy and convenient storage, so the energy availability can be assured for certain
period by storing a certain quantity.
The technology for their conversion and their use is universally available, so these
sources are very convenient to use as.
Disadvantages

Use of fossil fuels, generates pollutants as by-products. CO, CO2, NOx, and SOx are
the main pollutants generated by the use of these sources. These gases pollute the
environment, health hazardous and cause various other serious problems. CO2and
other greenhouse gases are mainly responsible for global warming.

Safety of nuclear plants is a challengeable subject. The major problems with nuclear
energy are as follows:

Nuclear plants waste material generates radioactivity quotients of dangerous

levels, posing health hazards if not properly disposed off.

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 There is a possibility of accidental leakage of radioactive material from reactor (as
happened in April 1986 in Chernobyl, former USSR).

Uranium resources have limited availability for which the technology presently
exists

1.2.3 Advantages and disadvantages of Renewable energy resources

The most important feature of renewable energy is that it can be harnessed from their
source without release of any harmful pollutants. Due to the growing significance of
environmental issues clean energy generation is becoming more and more crucial day by day.
Currently, about 14% of total world energy demand is fulfilled by supplying energy from
renewable energy resources and their future potential is extraordinary.

Advantages

These are available in nature abundantly and free of cost.

They produce no or very little pollution. Thus they are environment friendly.
They are inexhaustible.
They have a low gestation period.

Disadvantages

In general, availability of the energy is in dilute form from this source.

The energy harnessing cost fromrenewable source is generally high, while available
freely in nature.
As the energy flow depends on various natural phenomena which are beyond human
control, so availability of energy is uncertain.
Difficulty in transporting such forms of energy.

1.3 Solar energy

Sun radiates solar radiation energy flux uniformly in all directions in the form of
electromagnetic waves. The Sun is the central point of our solar system, it has probably been
in existence for 5 billion years and is expected to survive for a further 5 billion years. The
Sun provides the energy needed to sustain life in our Solar system. It is an abundantly, clean,
inexhaustible and universally available source of renewable energy. The output energy flux of

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 the Sun is 2.81023 kW/year and the energy flux arriving at the Earth is 1.51018 kWh/ year
[1].

Solar energy also appears in nature in some other forms of energy. These are called
indirect forms of solar energy. Thus, solar energy is called the mother of all forms of energy
such as renewable and non-renewable, conventional and non-conventional. Nuclear energy is
the only exception [1].

Following sources of energy find their origin in the sun [1];

1. Wind energy
2. Ocean wave energy
3. Biomass energy
4. Tidal energy
5. Ocean thermal energy
6. Fossil fuel and other organic chemicals

1.4 Solar energy resources

The Sun is an infinite source of energy. It is the largest member of our solar system. It
has a diameter of 1.39106 km and an average distance of 1.495108 km from the earth. It is a
sphere of intensely hot gaseous matter. At the innermost region, the core temperature is
estimated from 8106 K to 40106 K. By enormous energy released due to continuous fusion
reactiona higher inner temperature is maintained.The surface temperature of the sun is
maintained at a temperature of approximately 5800 K [1, 3].

Thus, the Sun works as a big natural fusion reactor, several fusion reactions have been
proposed in the sun. The most important reaction is

41H1 2He4 + 26.7 MeV

Solar energy freely available throughout the world with huge potential is one of the
most ensuring sources of energy, because it is clean, renewable, abundant and safe for
environment.It is the most readily available renewable source of energy that we have access
to on our planet. Energy flux provided by Sun is about 1367 W/m2 outside the mean interface
of earths atmosphere. As some portion of solar energy flux is lost while passing through the
air mass, Earths surface receives very less amount of solar energy flux. By integrating over a
few days solar energy flux incident on earths surface is sufficient to meet the present global

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demand of energy in a year. Fruitfully, it may be used in different sectors of human activities
for a variety of applications [6].

India is blessed with ample amount of solar radiation. The variation in the radiation is
4 to 6 kWhm-2day-1 with about 15002000 sunshine hours per year (depending upon
location), which is far more than Indias current total energy consumption. With about 300
clear sunny days in a year, India's theoretical solar power reception on only its land area is
about 600TW.

As compared to rest of the country,the arid and semi-arid parts of the country receive
much more radiation. The mean annual daily solar radiationis received at Jodhpur is 5.595
kWhm-2day-1. The maximum 6.272 kWhm-2day-1 and minimum 2.778 kWhm-2day-1 direct
solar radiation is received at Jodhpur i.e. in western arid part and at Port Blair respectively
[4].

Area occupied by the Indian tropical arid zone is 3,20,000 km2 spread over Western
Rajasthan, North Gujarat, South West of Punjab &Haryana and parts of Karnataka and
Andhra Pradesh. The western part of the Rajasthan covering 12 districts occupied the major
part of Indian arid zone about 76%. 2,40,000 MW power can be generated if 1.5 % arid area
is covered under solar thermal power plant, while present installed capacity is around
270GW in India [Table 1.1].

1.4.1 State wise estimated solar power potential

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF SOLAR ENERGY (NISE) has carried out an exercise

of estimating the State wise solar power potential in the country. The calculation has been
made taking data from Census 2011. The calculation has also taken into consideration data
from India Waste Land Atlas 2010, Ministry of Rural Development.

According to NISE the total solar power is 748.98 GWp. The State wise estimated
solar power potential is shown in the following table 1.3. The India Waste Land Atlas 2010 is
also shown in following figure 1.2.

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 TABLE 1.3
STATE WISE ESTIMATED SOLAR POWER POTENTIAL IN INDIA
Total Solar Power in GWp: 748.98 GWp
State Solar Potential (GWp)
Andhra Pradesh 38.44
Arunachal Pradesh 8.65
Assam 13.76
Bihar 11.20
Chhattisgarh 18.27
Delhi 2.05
Goa 0.88
Gujarat 35.77
Haryana 4.56

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Himachal Pradesh 33.84
Jammu & Kashmir 111.05
Jharkhand 18.18
Karnataka 24.70
Kerala 6.11
Madhya Pradesh 61.66
Maharashtra 64.32
Manipur 10.63
Meghalaya 5.86
Mizoram 9.09
Nagaland 7.29
Orissa 25.78
Punjab 2.81
Rajasthan 142.31
Sikkim 4.94
Tamil Nadu 17.67
Telangana 20.41
Tripura 2.08
Uttar Pradesh 22.83
Uttarakhand 16.80
West Bengal 6.26
UT 0.79
Total 748.98
Source: MNRE and NISE

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Source: Ministry of Rural Development and NISE

Fig.1.2 India Waste Land Atlas 2010

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1.5 Uses of solar energy

Because of its non-polluting nature solar energy is the most important renewable
source of energy. Solar energy can be utilized directly in two ways [2].

1. By collecting energy of the solar radiant heat and using it in a thermal system known
as solar thermal energy.
Ex: Solar water heating, Solar cooking, Solar desalination, Solar drying, Solar energy
for industrial process heat, Solar heating and cooling of building, Solar greenhouse,
Solar refrigeration and air conditioning, Solar furnace etc.
2. By collecting and converting solar radiant heat directly to electrical energy using a
photovoltaic system known as solar photovoltaic system.
Ex: Solar cell.

Solar energy has been used for effortless domestic applications like drying of clothes,
food products and comfort by mankind since thousands of years. Conversion of Solar energy
offers a possibility of variety of energy applications through photo-voltaic conversion, photo-
catalysis, photo- thermal conversion etc. Out of various conversion processes, conversion to
thermal energy is the most simple and efficient process. A number of applications such as
cooking, drying, air-conditioning, desalination, and water heating etc. are done by using
thermal energy. Amongst photo thermal systems, solar cookers are important due to their high
usability potential, wider social impact and much lower cost.

1.6 Cooking: An Overview

1.6.1 Introduction

Food, one of the basic necessities for living, makes cooking an integral part of each
and every human being. Firewood, crop residue, cow dung, kerosene, electricity, liquefied
petroleum gas (LPG), biogas are common sources of energy used for cooking. Half of the
worlds population is affected from indoor air pollution, which is produced from burning of
solid fuels for heating and cooking. Sixteen million hectares (above 4% of total area of India)
of forests are destroyed annually due to cutting of wood for cooking purpose. The World
Health Organization (WHO) reports that10% of deaths in 23 countries are due to just two
environmental risk factors[5].

Indoor air pollution due to solid fuel usage for cooking.

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 Unsafe water, including poor sanitation and hygiene.

In the village of underdeveloped countries, for collecting the firewood for cooking
women walk two kilometers on an average and spend lot of time. Bio-fuels such as charcoal,
fuel wood, agricultural residues and dung cakes fulfill cooking energy demand in rural areas,
whereas LPG or electricity is predominantly used in urban areas of developing countries [5].

1.6.2 Existing cooking sources

Depending on its availability energy sources, which are used for cooking vary from
place to place. Sources like firewood, crop residues and biomass are easily available in rural
areas. In Oil-rich countries or countries which can afford fossil fuels, mainly LPG and
kerosene are used in cooking. There is several energy sources used for cooking worldwide
which are briefly discussed below [5][18].

Firewood:

In rural areas wood is a very commonly used cooking fuel. Often used dry and hard
wood has energy capacity of 14.89 MJ/kg. Out of this, about 10.423MJ/kg is retrievable
[5].After burning firewood smoke is produced,this contains carbon dioxide, water vapor, and
other chemical as well as aerosol particulates. Wood firing may considerably contribute to air
pollution depending on the population density, climate, topography,and combustion
equipment used. Carcinogenic and toxic substances could be present in wood combustion
products. The human health problems like heart diseases and asthma can beresult of
particulate air pollution.

Crop Residue

Process residues and field residues are two types of agricultural crop residues.
Materials like bagasse (fibrous residue obtained from sugarcane), roots, seeds, and husks are
used as cooking fuel in most part of the rural places are process residues. The materials left
after the processing of the crop into usable resource are called process residues. After the crop
have been harvested, the materials left in agricultural field, are called field residues, like
stubble (stems), stalks and leaves.

Cow dung

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 In most of the developing countries like India, cow dung is used as fertilizer as well as
fuel. In rural India dried and caked cow dung is most common cooking fuel. In traditional
cook stoves dried and caked cow dung is used as a fuel. These stoves are not properly
ventilated. Many respiratory health issues have been created by cow dung burning.
Additionally in unsuspecting villagers, it is found to be causing arsenic poisoning. This leads
to respiratory problems such as persistent coughs and reduced lung capacity due to inhalation
of arsenic.

Kerosene

Kerosene is also known as paraffin which is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid.

Kerosene has energy capacity around 43MJ/kg, which is similar to the heat of combustion to
that of diesel. The use of kerosene as fuel is mainly in some portable stoves for backpackers
and in less developed countries but here it usually contains impurities and is less refined. Due
to the danger of building up of carbon monoxide gas use of kerosene is not recommended in
closed indoor areas without a chimney.

Biogas

Biogas is produced in a biogas fermenter or digester by anaerobic digestion or

fermentation of biodegradable materials such as biomass, green waste, crop residues, and
municipal waste. Biogas is produced in the absence of oxygen by the biological breakdown
of organic matter. Biogas primarily contains methane (50%-75%), carbon dioxide (25%-
50%), hydrogen (5%-10%) and nitrogen (0.5%-0.7 %). Small amount of hydrogen sulfide
and oxygen is also present in biogas. Wood gas is the other major type of biogas which is
produced by gasification of wood or other biomass. Generally, for low cost heating
application like cooking biogas is used and also can be used to generate either mechanical or
electrical power like mantle lamps and small IC engine.

Electricity

Initially electricity was used for cooking purpose throughelectric heaters, in which
current is allowed to flow in the resistive heating coils which heats iron hotplates or coils and
cooking potsare placed on the top of the hot coils. In some places Halogen lamps are also

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used as a heating element. The efficiency of Halogen lamps is 60%. It is more compared to
efficiency of electric coil which has an efficiency of 55%.

A recent technology developed for cooking is the induction cooking, which gives
around 90% efficiency. The cooking utensil is heated directly through electromagnetic
induction. Ferromagnetic bottoms pots and vessels are required for this type of cooking. Use
of flameless cooking has some advantages over conventional gas flame cooking. The electric
cookers provides greater heat consistency, improved thermal efficiency, rapid heating, and
good controllability as LPG.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)

LPG is used as a fuel for cooking, water heating and in vehicles. It is a mixture of
hydrocarbon gases. It is also being used as a refrigerant to reduce damage to the ozone layer.
LPG is being manufactured during the refining of crude oil, or extracted from oil or gas
streams as they come out from the ground. Mostly available LPG is a mixture of propane
(C3H8 is 60%) and butane (C4H10 is40%) having calorific value of 46.1MJ/kg. [5].It is a low
carbon emitting hydrocarbon fuel.

1.6.3 Cooking sources used in India

The energy for cooking accounts for 36% of the total primary energy consumption.
According to Indian government survey-2001 and survey-2011, 52.5% and 49% of people
use firewood for cooking, 17.5% and 28.5% of people use LPG of the total population. The
observations of survey of 2001 and 2011 are shown in table 1.4 and 1.5.

TABLE 1.4
COOKING SOURCES USED IN INDIAIN2001 [5]
S. no Cooking source People Percentage
1. Firewood 100,842,651 52.53
2. LPG 33,596,798 17.5
3. Crop residue 19,254,851 10.03
4. Cow dung cake 18,758,885 9.77
5. Kerosene 12,528,916 6.53
6. Coal, lignite, charcoal 3,932,730 2.05
7. Biogas 849,098 0.44
8. Electricity 338,054 0.18
9. Other sources 1,231,727 0.64

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 TABLE 1.5
COOKING SOURCES USED IN INDIAIN2011
Item House list Absolute number Percentage
No. Item Total Rural Urba Total Rura Urba
n l n
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
U Households by fuel used
for cooking
U.1 Total number of 246,692,66 167,826,73 78,865,937 100.0 100.0 100.0
households 7 0
U.2 Fire-wood 120,834,38 104,963,97 15,870,416 49.0 62.5 20.1
8 2
U.3 Crop residue 21,836,915 20,696,938 1,139,977 8.9 12.3 1.4
U.4 Cowdung cake 19,609,328 18,252,466 1,356,862 7.9 10.9 1.7
U.5 Coal, Lignite, 3,577,035 1,298,968 2,278,067 1.4 0.8 2.9
Charcoal
U.6 Kerosene 7,164,589 1,229,476 5,935,113 2.9 0.7 7.5
U.7 LPG 70,422,883 19,137,351 51,285,532 28.5 11.4 65.0
U.8 Electricity 235,527 118,030 117,497 0.1 0.1 0.1
U.9 Bio-gas 1,018,978 694,384 324,594 0.4 0.4 0.4
U.1 Any other 1,196,059 1,040,538 155,521 0.5 0.6 0.2
0
U.1 No cooking 796,965 394,607 402,358 0.3 0.2 0.5
1
Source: Ministry of home affairs (Census of India 2011)

The energy demand for cooking is fulfilled by cow dung cake, firewood, kerosene,
biogas and agricultural residue in rural India. Indoor air pollution is produced by burning
these fuel sources of energy for cooking. In suburban and urban areas the most preferred
source of energy for cooking are LPG and electricity. 70.4 million or 28.5% of Indian
households use LPG as cooking fuel.

Due to limitation of conventional fuel and increase in demand of LPG, there is

increase in price of crude oil and LPG in the international market. Therefore, Indian
government has been forced to raise the price of LPG exponentially over the decade. Thus,
this has led the Indian government to search for alternative sources of energy.

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 Since in each and every household, cooking is an integral part. The large difference
between supply and demand of energy may be reduced by use of cooking with solar energy in
future. Utilization of solar energy is essential for sustainable living looking to the continuous
increase in population and economic growth.

1.7 Solar cooking

The energy demand is exponentially increasing due to exponential rise in the worlds
population and resulting growth of industrial activities. Since fulfilling this energy
requirement by using fossil fuels is not possible,so sources of energy which are cleaner,
ecofriendly and renewable are required. Cooking is an integral part of every humans life.
Cooking and heating process consumes a major fraction of the household energy
requirement.

36% of total primary energy is consumed for cooking about 70% of the total
population of India which inhabit in the rural area [18]. 75% of their cooking energy
requirement fulfilled from non-commercial fuel like fuel wood from the forest, which leads to
deforestation. Fortunately, India is a solar energy rich country and nearly 58% of Indias
geographical area has annual average solar insolation of 5 kWh/m2 day.

Existing cooking fuels like kerosene, LPG, firewood, cow dung, crop residue etc. are
air polluting fuel, whereas solar cooking is a very simple, ecofriendly and clean alternative.
Solar cooking provides an economical and ecofriendly solution for cooking forrural and
urban communities of the developing countries [5].There are different types of solar cookers
easily available in the market.

A solar cooker is a device that cooks food by using solar radiation and saves
conventional fuel. It works like a heat exchanger device. The solar radiation incident on the
cooker is trapped and converted to heat by which cooking is done. It is safest, simplest and
most favorable way to cook food without consuming fuels or heating up the kitchen.

The principle of cooking has been described by Lof. As per Lof principle maximum
energy required is during the sensible heating period [9,10]. For physical and chemical
changes involved in cooking the heat required is less. During cooking, 45% of the heat is

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spent in convection losses from cooking utensils, 20% of heat is spent in bringing food to
boiling temperature and 35% of heat is spent in vaporization of water [3].

1.7.1 Advantages of solar cooking

There are following advantage of solar cooking [5].

Solar energy is a clean source of energy. Therefore, solar cooking prevents form
problems of global dimming and global warming by reducing deforestation and
indoor air pollution.
In the solar cooker during cooking moderate cooking temperatures help maintain
nutrients as minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates and proteins of the food. Cooked food
also holds cosmic energies (life forces) which keep human beings free from mental
tensions and healthy.
The food cooked in solar cooker gradually relieves constipation, stomach disorder,
acidity and gastric trouble. This food is medically acceptable food and is easily
digestible.
Solar cookers can also be used to food processor and water pasteurizer.
Conventional cooking or fires cooking are dangerous for children and women. It can
cause damage to building also. Solar cooker is free from fire and safer compared to
conventional cooking.
Solar cooker is easy to use and almost maintenance free. They have no operating cost.
The burden on use of commercial and non-commercial fuels for domestic purposes
can be reduced by using solar cooking and hence emits less carbon to environment.
On cooking fuel, 25% or more of their income spent by many poverty-stricken
families worldwide. Sunlight is free and abundant, so saved money can be used for
quality of food and health care [5].
Same vessels can be used for conventional cooking and solar cooking. Mostly
existing solar cookers are portable and easy to transport at the time of family outgoing
tour.

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1.7.2 Main reasons for slow progress of solar cookers in India

Cooking and Eating are personal matters, for most Indian families.

Mostly solar radiation is available from 9 AM to 5 PM when most of the employed

women have to go on the job to the office or work place.

In box type solar cooker, there is no option of frying; only boiling is possible. In India
most of food is served with fried curries. So there has to be another system should be
required for frying the food besides the solar cooker. But usually for the cooking of
food, nobody wants to use two different cooking systems for boiling and frying.

In metro cities and urban areas of India mostly population are living in multistory
buildings. They pay large amount for cooking fuel so they understand the advantage
of solar cooker. But due to non-availability of solar radiation on their floor for
sufficient time and busy life style, they cannot use solar cooker.

In the rural areas of India, large space and huge solar radiations are easily available
for the operation of solar cooking. But lack of awareness about the environmental,
social and economical issues, they do not use this technology. In rural areas non-
commercial fuels such as wood and cow dung are available easily in large quantity.

Traditionally cooking of food is preferred indoors, but solar cooking has to be done in
outside.

In box type solar cookers food can prepare only for lunch, because long time is taken
to cook the food.The requirement of the hot food is mostly in earlier and later part of
the day but cooking is possible during the middle of the day.

1.8 Objective of the Thesis

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 The main aim of the present work is to study the design aspect of box type solar
cookers with different shapes and absorbing materials in order to facilitate better designing of
box type solar cookers for widespread use among masses. However the specific objectives
are:-

Study of energy consumption and expenditure pattern on cooking fuels used in

households of Rajasthan.
Design and development of box type solar cookers with three different shapes i.e.
square, trapezoidal and rectangular.
Comparative theoretical and on field studies of the developed hot box solar cookers.
Study and determination of Thermal Performance Parameters (TPP) for developed
solar cookers.
Experimental studies on square shape hot box solar cookers with different absorbing
surfaces.

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