Development and testing of community solar cooker with steam cooking

Human progress has been seeing a continuous move towards cleaner energizes from wood to coal, from coal to oil, from oil to petroleum gas; renewable are the present interest. Solar cooking and water heating are widely accepted at domestic and commercial level as clean and green energy applications Thermal energy requirements for cooking purpose form a major share of the total energy consumed especially in ruler areas. A verity of fuel like coal, kerosene, LPG, Firewood, Dung cakes and Agricultural wastes are used to meet the requirements. Fossil fuel is a fast depleting, costly and environment degrading resource and needs to be conserved. Firewood for cooking causes deforestation and cow dung, agricultural wastes etc. may be better used as good fertilizers. Harnessing solar energy for cooking purposes is an attractive and relevant option. The system for cooking food using steam generated from solar energy will be developed for indoor cooking suitable for boiling and baking applications as this system provides much higher temperature and consumes much lesser cooking time compared to conventional solar cooker. In this project work a primary reflecting parabolic surface concentrates the solar radiation on absorber. The absorber absorbs the concentrated radiation and temperature heat to water. The water is converted into steam. The steam generated in the absorber is taken through insulated pipe to the Steam jacketed utensil where the food is to be cooked. The main objectives of this project are: 1) To promote solar energy technologies to meet cooking energy requirements of a family in rural area. 2) Reduction in the consumption of traditional cooking.