Enhancing Box Type Solar Cookers by Using Jatropha Oil as Sensible Heat Storage Medium

Abstract

This research paper is based on an assessment of the performance of a box-type solar cooker insulated with kapok wool and incorporating a thermal heat storage unit. The heat storage material used in this work is Jatropha Curcas seed oil which is available locally as well as kapok wool. The realized can offer an economically viable alternative while avoiding environmental deterioration caused by the significant use of biomass and fossil energy sources for cooking purposes. The different tests based on existing standards permitted to determine the thermal performance parameters of the cooker such as the first figure of merit (F1) and the second figure of merit (F2) which were determined to be F1= 0.13 and F2= 0.31. The cooker efficiency η = 47.07 %. The American Society of Agricultural Engineers for Solar Cooking (ASAE S580.1) is used to determine the cooking power and it is found to be P =123.2 W. In addition, a cooking test enabled to cook 0.5 kg of beans for around 3 hours.