NITIE

Project Urja

Identification of ProjectWood, agricultural residues and cattle-dung cakes are theprimary energy sources for cooking in rural areas.Traditional chulhas, commonly in use in rural areas,however, are inefficient and environmentally undesirable. Incontrast, improved chulhas are scientifically designed foroptimal regulation of heat flow and better fuel utilization.Improved chulhas have heat transfer efficiency of 20-35%ascompared to 8-10% in case of traditional chulhas.

objectives

i. Conservation of fuel wood and other biomass;ii. Removal of smoke from kitchen;iii. Check on deforestation and environmental up gradation;iv. Reduction in the drudgery of women and girl children

from cooking in smoky kitchen;v. Reduction of health hazards and in cooking time; andvi. Provides employment opportunities to rural people.

Benefits

The benefits of the improved chulha is to reduce fuelconsumption leading to saving in fuel wood. It reduces thesmoke so the women can save time & saving in time leading tomore economic activity, employment generation, etc.

Improved chulhas are scientifically designed, environmentalfriendly cookstoves with a thermal efficiency of about 20 % ormore as compared to 5% to 10% efficiency of traditionalchulhas.

Selection of SupplierUrjas Energy Solutions Private Limited was

selected as partner in developing the “Cook stove” model

Mr Pradeep Podal one of the founder of the company introduced us to Dev Pareek other founder of Urjas

Dev Pareek has wide experience in the field of Non-Conventional Energy Sources

He is Currently pursuing PhD in IIT Bombay Principle designer and developer of

“Improved Chulha”

Primary SurveyPrimary survey conducted to get

feedback of the designed modelSurvey was done in the village called

“Bongod” near Vihar LakeSmall village with most of the

households using traditional chulha to cook food

Main source of biomass was fuelwood collected form the barren area nearby

Both men and women fetch the wood wich require high physical energy

DemonstrationDemo of the product done in

front of the villagers Displayed the method of using

the cook stove The method of filling the cook

stove and ignited was taught to the villager

People enthusiastically participated in the demo

The product was appreciated by the villagers

A prototype was kept with the a villager so that they could use it in their daily chores

FeedbackAfter the demo feedback was taken from the person with whom the

chulha was keptBased on these finding more work is to be done to include the requirements of

the users in the designSome prominent findings are as follows

There was significant decrease in the amount of smoke produced The chulha took less time to cook the food and fuelwood required was also

less The height of the chulha was found to be more than the height at which

the Indian women cook the food People preferred frontloading of the wood instead of the top loading which

is done in the given chulhaAfter further modifications an improved design of the chulha will be developed

for commercial use by the people

Thank you !