Experimental investigation of a solar energy based cooking system for the steam method of cooking using evacuated tube collector

ABSTRACT

The present manuscript includes the experimental performance investigation of a solar cooking system for the cooking of Indian articles using steam. The system incorporates a novel SCP (steam cooking pot), evacuated tube collector, and thermal oil as working fluid to generate steam. The Indian food items like idli, dhokla, and momos were prepared using the investigated solar cooking system with SCP. The preparation of these items has been carried out by loading the pre-requisite material in the SCP during different times of the day. The maximum and minimum time for the carried out cooking was observed as 95 min and 65 min for dhokla and momos respectively. The energy of the thermal oil flowing through the SCP was utilized for the cooking and its value was calculated. The maximum of the averaged values of thermal oil energy in SCP was observed 300 kJ during the cooking performed at 13:55 h. The study concludes that the proposed SCP incorporated solar cooking system can be useful over conventional solar cooker regarding the cooking of food items with steam and three times a day.

KEYWORDS:

• Solar cooking system
• thermal oil
• steam cooking method
• idli
• dhokla and momos
• three times cooking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ranjan Chaudhary

Ranjan Chaudhary, Corresponding Author, is a Ph.D. research scholar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra, India. His research interests include solar energy-based cooking systems. His research work concentrates on different cooking vessels for different cooking needs.

Lokesh Pandey

Lokesh Pandey, Coauthor, is an Assistant Professor in Uttarakhand Technical University, Uttarakhand, India. His research interests include heat transfer applications and solarenergy.

Avadhesh Yadav

Avadhesh Yadav, Coauthor, is an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering Department, National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra, India. His primary research interests include indoor solar cooking and outdoor solar cooking, solar distillation, solar drying, and water extraction from atmospheric air using solar energy. He has published more than 50 research papers in reputed International Journals in the field of solar energy and others.