Experimental and comparative study of Chinese commercial improved coal-fired cooking and space-heating stoves.

The extensive use of traditional cooking stoves to meet daily cooking and heating requirements has highlighted the serious problem of indoor and outdoor air pollution. This study evaluates three improved cooking and heating stoves (ICHSs) and compared them with a traditional stove as a baseline reference. The stoves' performance regarding emission and thermal efficiency was evaluated with burning raw coal. All ICHSs surpassed the baseline stove in combined heating and cooking thermal and emission performance. Among the ICHSs, Model ICHS-3 was found to have the highest average thermal efficiency, 69.6±0.8%. The lowest emission of PM_2.5 was 3.2±1.6 mg/MJ_NET, CO 2.9±0.34 g/MJ_NET, and CO/CO₂ 2.3±0.3%, respectively. It is concluded that the use of the ICHSs should be promoted for daily cooking and heating needs. The adoption of ICHSs could contribute to significant reductions of PM_2.5 and CO emissions as well as save fuel to the benefit of the household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]