Household air pollution from traditional cook stoves presents a greater health hazard than any other environmental factor. Despite government e orts to support clean-burning cooking fuels, over 700 million people in South Asia could still rely on traditional stoves in 2030. This number could rise if climate change mitigation e orts increase energy costs. Here we quantify the costs of support po...

1. Background 2. Fundamentals of Biomass Combustion 2.1. Efficiency Constraints in Combustion 3. The Nature of Biomass Solid Fuels 3.1. Standard Tests in Fuels Analysis 3.2. Proximate and Ultimate Analysis 4. Fuel Preparation 5. Combustion Products from Biomass 5.1. Mineral Matter and Ash 5.2. Nitrogen Oxides 5.3. Sulfur Dioxide SO2 5.4. Chlorine – tube corrosion and dioxin (TCDD) formation 6. ...

HIGHLIGHTS In developing countries, especially in rural areas, 2.5 billion people rely on biomass, such as fuelwood, charcoal, agricultural waste and animal dung, to meet their energy needs for cooking. In many countries, these resources account for over 90% of household energy consumption. In the absence of new policies, the number of people relying on biomass will increase to over 2.6 billion...

Indoor air pollution due to the indoor burning of polluting fuels has been associated with Acute Lower Respiratory Infections (ALRI) amongst children less than five years old. This paper reviews evidence of the association between household energy, indoor air pollution and child ALRI in South Africa. Studies show evidence consistent with the international literature with the likelihood of ALRI ...

Biomass residues can also be converted into various non-solid fuel forms. These fuels are referred to as biogas and liquid biofuels. The aim of this conversion process is to improve the quality, specific energy content, transportability, etc., of the raw biomass source or to capture gases which are naturally produced as biomass is micro biologically degraded or when biomass is partially combust...

Air pollution is amongst the gravest public health concerns worldwide, and indoor sources are largest contributors in many developing countries. In our study central India, we randomly assigned villages to a campaign by rural workers either raise awareness about adverse effects of smoke from cooking with solid fuels measures mitigate them, or combined information on universal cash-back LPG (liq...

The type of energy utilized by households is a good reflection the quality life and socio-economic development in any given country. Unfortunately, continued dependence on traditional fuels such as fuelwood major source for domestic purposes particularly Nigeria generating concerns due to its negative environmental, health effects. This study was therefore undertaken examine factors that drive ...

Background: In Nepal, about 75% people rely on wood and other biomass fuels for cooking. The majority of Nepali families cook on a traditional stove, an open fire in the kitchen resulting in indoor air pollution, one of the key risk factors for Acute Lower Respiratory Infection (ALRI) among under-five children.The study aimed at exploring the association of indoor air pollution due to use of tr...

BACKGROUND Household air pollution (HAP) resulting from the use of solid cooking fuels is a leading contributor to the burden of disease in India. Advanced combustion cookstoves that reduce emissions from biomass fuels have been considered potential interventions to reduce this burden. Relatively little effort has been directed, however, to assessing the concentration and exposure changes assoc...

This paper applies an ordered discrete choice framework to model fuel choices and patterns of cooking fuel use in urban Indian households. The choices considered are for three main cooking fuels: firewood, kerosene and LPG (liquid petroleum gas). The models, estimated using a large microeconomic dataset, show a reasonably good performance in the prediction of households’ primary and secondary f...