Biomass fuel consumption and indoor air pollution from cooking appliances in refugee settings

Background
Indoor air pollution from reliance on firewood and charcoal remains a major health and environmental challenge in refugee and host communities. Although energy-efficient cooking technologies have the potential to reduce biomass fuel consumption and indoor air pollution, the comparative performance of different technologies under real-household conditions remains limited.

Objective
A study was conducted to quantify household cooking energy consumption and the resulting gas and particle concentrations from selected cooking technologies.

Methods
The study evaluated three cooking stoves: the Three-stone open fire, Lorena, and Traditional metallic stove (TMS), using firewood, charcoal, and briquettes. Eighteen cooking tests measured carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), fine particulate matter (PM₂.₅), fuel consumption, and cooking time.

Results
Firewood enabled the fastest cooking, while briquettes with the Lorena stove required twice the cooking time. The Lorena stove consumed slightly more firewood and substantially more briquettes than the TMS, but was more efficient with charcoal. CO levels when using firewood exceeded the World Health Organization (WHO) 1-hour guideline by 61% (Three-stone open fire) and 153% (Lorena), while briquettes remained within limits. Both ambient and cooking-related CO₂ concentrations remained below the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) permissible exposure limit, whereas ambient PM₂.₅ concentrations averaged 28 µg/m³ , exceeding WHO air quality guidelines.

Conclusions
The study found context-dependent performance variations, challenging the assumption that improved cooking technologies are universally effective. Despite reducing cooking-related pollutants, briquettes and the Lorena stove alone cannot address elevated ambient PM₂.₅ levels, highlighting the need for integrated air quality interventions.

---

Download :

English

---

This works is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

---

---