Writer: Sum C

Cookers are popular kitchen appliances in modern society. However, many people living in the rural areas and some urban areas of developing countries still cook over fires fuelled by coal, wood, dry grasses or other materials. This method of cooking over fire causes deforestation, water contamination and the local communities to suffer from respiratory illness due to prolonged exposure to smoke. To promote sustainable living to the local communities, a group of engineers in Nigeria has created a design of a solar cooker which will be easily set up and operated by the local communities.

The solar cooker is made of materials easily accessible in rural communities such as aluminium sheets, iron, steel pipes, plywood and reflective glass. It consists of two main components: a parabolic reflector and a cooking box. The reflector surface is covered with an aluminium sheet. The cooking box is in rectangular shape with three sides which are at the top, bottom and either side made of reflective glass and the other three sides are made of wood. The reflective glass allows sun rays to get into the box. Inside the cooking box, there is a cooking pot made of aluminium and a compartment for heat storage material such as black engine oil and black coated gravel.

The research conducted by a team of Nigerian engineers showed that this solar cooker could be used to boil water and cook rice. It has proven that the solar cooker is a “viable alternative” to cooking with open burning of materials that poses serious environmental and health-related threats to the people living in developing countries.

“The next steps include design modifications to further reduce the rate of heat loss through the wall of the cooking box for better efficiency,” said Dr Clement A. Komolafe, the lead author of this research. “For quick redistribution of this new device design to rural communities, we’re inviting interested Individuals, corporate organizations, and government parastatals to sponsor or partner in the project.”
 

Source:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles
https://www.weforum.org
https://blog.frontiersin.org
https://www.azocleantech.com

Image Source:
www.namibian.com.na