Development and performance evaluation of a photovoltaic-powered induction cooker (PV-IC): An approach for promoting clean production in rural areas

Energy poverty, which is the lack of access to clean and economical energy services, is a serious problem in many developing countries. Traditional cooking processes based on fossil fuels cause severe internal air pollution which is the main factor for female mortality. In this regard, electric cookers have received remarkable attention that among them, induction cookers (ICs) are known as emerging, safe, and eco-friendly devices with no flame, no contamination production, and no combustion wastes. In remote rural areas with no/difficult access to grid electricity, stand-alone solar photovoltaic (PV) systems can be utilized to provide the power demand of ICs. In this study, an IC powered by an off-grid PV system was fabricated and its performance was experimentally evaluated. During the experiments, the maximum energy and exergy efficiencies of the PV system were calculated as 11.8% and 17%, respectively. Also, the effect of using various pots made of iron, aluminum, and stainless steel with different sizes on the temperature rise and the energy transfer at a constant time duration of 5 min was evaluated. The results indicated that the steel pot with a diameter of 13 mm and a thickness of 1 mm results in the largest amount of energy transfer at the highest temperature of 63 °C when the input voltage is 45 V. The maximum values of energy and exergy efficiencies of the PV-IC were also calculated as 47.6% at 9:00 with the input voltage of 45 V and 13.3% at 17:00 with the input voltage of 20 V. Additionally, the time durations required to cook different food materials including fried egg, rice, fried chicken, and fried potato, using the IC, a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stove, and an electric cooker were calculated and compared. It was found that the cooking time is shorter for the LPG stove in comparison with the PV-IC, and the longest cooking time was reported for the electric cooker for all cooked materials. The economic analysis also revealed that the cost of cooking using the PV-IC cooker is equal to 3.88 USD/month considering 6 operating hours in a day. Using PV-ICs by villagers and nomads not only prevents deforestation and CO2 emission, but also cuts the gas or electricity costs, and therefore a cleaner production device with no adverse impact on the environment would be available.