Project Urja

Identification of Project
Wood, agricultural residues and cattle-dung cakes are the primary energy sources for cooking in rural areas. Traditional chulhas, commonly in use in rural areas, however, are inefficient and environmentally undesirable. In contrast, improved chulhas are scientifically designed for optimal regulation of heat flow and better fuel utilization. Improved chulhas have heat transfer efficiency of 20-35%as compared 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; and vi. Provides employment opportunities to rural people.

Benefits
The benefits of the improved chulha is to reduce fuel

consumption leading to saving in fuel wood. It reduces the smoke so the women can save time & saving in time leading to more economic activity, employment generation, etc.
Improved chulhas are scientifically designed, environmental

friendly cookstoves with a thermal efficiency of about 20 % or more as compared to 5% to 10% efficiency of traditional chulhas.

Selection of Supplier
Urjas 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 Survey
Primary survey conducted to get

feedback of the designed model Survey was done in the village called Bongod near Vihar Lake Small 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

Demonstration
Demo 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

Feedback
After the demo feedback was taken from the person with

whom the chulha was kept

Based on these finding more work is to be done to include the

requirements of the users in the design

Some 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 chulha After further modifications an improved design of the chulha will be developed for commercial use by the people

Thank you !