A biogas stove was designed, constructed and its
performance evaluated using a 3 m3 continuousflow
Indian type biogas plant at the Teaching and
Research Farm, University of Agriculture, Makurdi,
Nigeria. The biogas plant was operated with cattle
dung as feedstock in the ratio of 1 part of dung to 2
parts of water at a retention time of 30 days and
daily loading rate of 100 kg of slurry. The performance
of the stove was evaluated by boiling water,
cooking rice and beans and the time taken to perform
specific tasks determined from a stop watch.
The amount of biogas used in boiling and cooking
was determined from the operating pressure of the
plant measured from a manometer that was placed
between the stove and the plant. The results
obtained showed that 0.14 l of water was boiled in
1 minute while 5.13 g of rice and 2.55 g of beans
cooked in a minute. The biogas consumption for
boiling water, cooking rice and beans was
0.69m3/min, 2.81m3/min and 4.87m3/min respectively.
The efficiency of the stove in boiling water,
cooking rice and beans was 20%, 56% and 53%
respectively.