Design, Fabrication and Performance Evaluation of Solar Brick Oven
Loading...
Date
2016-01-01
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
-Bread baking in Maiduguri and environs (north
eastern Nigeria) is mainly done in ovens that are fuelled by
charcoal sourced from fuel-wood; this process releases
harmful greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere with known
negative effects on the environment. The demand for fuelwood as energy source by bakeries and household users is
increasing while the resource is becoming scarce and costly
when available. These require immediate attention by
providing alternative sources that are environmentally safe,
less costly and accessible locally, so that overdependence on
fuel-wood is greatly reduced. A potentially cost effective
alternative energy source that is locally available is the solar
energy. Three materials (glass, Perspex and aluminum) were
used as window/screen materials for the oven, onto which a
parabolic solar collector was focused. All the three materials
achieved baking bread at different temperatures and time,
Glass oven baked at 90oC screen temperature and 120OC oven
temperature in 3hours, Perspex oven baked at 150oC screen
temperature and 130OC oven temperature in 3 ½ hours and
aluminum oven baked at 130oC screen temperature and
150OC oven temperature in 2hours thirty minutes with solar
insolation of 850 w/m2
on the test day. Glass and Perspex
sustained defect at different temperatures and exposure time.
It was observed that aluminum screened solar oven produced
bread with oven performance efficiency of 16% while glass
screened oven produced bread at 63% efficiency and Perspex
screened oven produced bread at 51% efficiency.
Temperature profiles within and outside the oven were
analyzed (with and without load). Analysis of the
experimental results showed that solar radiation, ambient
temperature and wind velocity with respect to the screening
materials were the most influential factors.