Cheney Fellowship December 2020 - Bioenergy and Cookstoves workshop

The Role of Bioenergy as Part of a Global Solution for Achieving Sustainability

The workshop consisted of presentations from the speakers outlined below and there was also a discussion and Q&A section.

Speakers included:

Professor Omar Masera Cerutti

Head of the Group on Ecotechnology and Bioenergy Innovation at UNAM (GIEB-UNAM), Morelia, Mexico

Co-creating Local Solutions to Global Problems - The Experience of the Group of Innovation on Ecotechnology and Bioenergy (GIEB)

The presentation will summarise GIEB´s vision, approach, areas of research and main findings in the area of small-scale bioenergy and ecotechnologies.

Dr Montserrat Serrano Medrano

Institute of Ecosystems and Sustainability Research, UNAM, Mexico

Is the Mexican residential sector in the pathway to a sustainable energy transition?

This study presents the results of an investigation focused on analysing the National Survey of Household Energy Consumption (ENCEVI for its acronym in Spanish) released at the end of 2018.

In particular, this survey included important and specific aspects of energy for cooking at a household level such as the secondary fuel for cooking, type of device for cooking, permanence of traditional devices, willingness to change current fuel of cooking and type of fuel considered for replacement.

Dr Alberto Beltrán Morales

Materials Research Institute (IIM), UNAM, Mexico

Transport phenomena in biomass plancha-type cookstoves: Numerical study

In this presentation numerical simulations for biomass plancha-type cookstoves are presented. In particular, the fluid flow, heat transfer and and gas-phase chemical reactions are modelled using ANSYS Fluent. Numerical results are compared with theoretical models for different variables and with experimental data.

Professor Jon Lovett

Chair of Global Challenges, School of Geography, University of Leeds, UK

Plant Power: Opportunities and challenges for meeting sustainable energy needs from the plant and fungal kingdoms

Bioenergy is a major component of the global transition to renewable energy technologies. The plant and fungal kingdoms offer great potential but remain mostly untapped.

A shift towards diversified, accessible bioenergy technologies will help to mitigate and adapt to the threats of climate change, decrease energy poverty, improve human health by reducing indoor pollution, increase energy resilience of communities, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.

https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10147

Agnes Naluwagga

Centre for Research in Energy and Energy Conservation (CREEC), Kampala, Uganda

Head, Regional Testing and Knowledge Centre (RTKC)

Research and training on clean cooking in Uganda.

"Enhancing access to Clean Cooking in Uganda: The CREEC Approach”

This presentation will cover the state of cooking in Uganda with specific insights into CREEC’s approach to increasing access to cleaner cooking solutions within the country, including: research areas, quality testing and standards, sector coordination and more!

analuwagga@creec.or.ug

David Maxwell

School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, UK

Emissions from the combustion of torrefied and raw biomass fuels in a domestic heating stove

Decarbonising space heating is a key part of many countries strategies to prevent climate change.

According to the Clean Air Act 2019, UK, combustion of solid fuels in homes contributed to 38% of PM emissions. Therefore, understanding the fuels used and the emissions created from combustion of biomass in domestic stoves is paramount.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuproc.2019.106266

We are grateful to support from the Cheney Fellowships Scheme, which has enabled us to build a programme of collaboration between the University of Leeds in the UK and UNAM in Mexico.

The research and capacity building is funded by the EPSRC grants to the CRESUM-HYRES and Doctoral Training Centre projects, the BBSRC grant to the BEFWAM project, the Royal Society Africa Capacity Building Initiative, IIES, UNAM campus Morelia, GIEB and BCS cluster in Mexico.