Possible impact of pelletised crop residues use as a fuel for cooking in Niger

One of the main causes of deforestation in Africa is the cutting of treesfor cooking purposes. Even though gas and other fuels are available, in theory, theirdiffusion is slower than the increase of the population that continues to use wood asa fuel. The trends for the near future show that, in many areas, the forests willdisappear and expose the soil to desertification. An intermediate solution to addressthe deforestation problem can be the use of other biomass sources, different fromthe traditional wood sticks, for cooking. In this paper, a system that uses agriculturalresidues and tree prunings, instead of wood, as a fuel, is introduced. The work doneconsisted in setting up a pellet making facility, and a gasifier stove. The resultsobtained by the pellet fuelled stove, show that its efficiency is higher than that of theimproved cook stoves that use wood, and that, in addition, the stove does notproduce smoke during normal cooking operation, making its use safer for theoperators and other persons close to thefire.