Energy-efficient cooking methods

Energy-efficient new cooking techniques have been developed in this research. Using a stove with 649 ± 20 W of power, the minimum heat, specific heat of transformation, and on-stove time required to completely cook 1 kg of dry beans (with water and other ingredients) and 1 kg of raw potato are found to be: 710 (±24) kJ, 613 (±20) kJ, and 1,144 ± 10 s, respectively, for beans and 287 ± 12 kJ, 200 ± 9 kJ, and 466 ± 10 s for Irish potato. Extensive researches show that these figures are, to date, the lowest amount of heat ever used to cook beans and potato and less than half the energy used in conventional cooking with a pressure cooker. The efficiency of the stove was estimated to be 52.5 ± 2 %. Discussion is made to further improve the efficiency in cooking with normal stove and solar cooker and to save food nutrients further. Our method of cooking when applied globally is expected to contribute to the clean development management (CDM) potential. The approximate values of the minimum and maximum CDM potentials are estimated to be 7.5 × 10¹¹ and 2.2 × 10¹³ kg of carbon credit annually. The precise estimation CDM potential of our cooking method will be reported later.