Abstract
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is a popular fuel for domestic and commercial cooking as it offers clean cooking environment as well as high heat content. Large increases in the demand of LPG in developing countries like India, in the face of its dwindling reserve, underscores the need for performance improvement of LPG cook stoves. The present paper investigates the combustion and emission characteristics of the LPG cook stove burners commonly used in India, and have suggested performance improvement through different designs modifications in the burner cap and fuel injection nozzle. It is found that the increase in the diameter of the ports admitting the fuel–primary air mixture and obliquely orienting the ports to impart swirl to the flow enhances the performance through better efficiency and reduced emissions and soot formation. The smaller orifice hole in the fuel injection nozzle also improves the performance through increased efficiency and reduced emission at the expense of decreasing burner loading. The design improvements are easy and economic to implement, and can lead to nearly 3% of improvement in system thermal efficiency and significant reduction in emission.