Health and Environmental Impact Assessment of Biomass Cook stove using Integrated Environmental Performance Score

Around 3 billion people in the world cook and heat inside their homes using solid biomass fuel with simple stoves burning biomass and coal. Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) from inefficient cooking practices is a big environmental health problem worldwide (WHO, 2016). Climate forcing pollutants viz., Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4) and Particulate Matters (PM) have an impact on the environment and human health. Use of biomass causes deforestation and environmental degradation as well as it contributes in Green House Gases (GHGs) (IPCC, 2007). This is vital to identify the lower emitting type of cook stove as a practical solution to lessen the impacts that ensure to save environemnt and human health. This study quantifies the Integrated Environmental Performance Score (IEPS) of five types of commonly used biomass cook stoves. Tool for Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and other Environmental Impacts (TRACI) is used to derive performance scores for each of the stoves’ potential contributions to impairment of climate, environment and human health. EPS of Three-stone stove is found 2.5 and 2.2 times higher than Rocket and Fan stoves, respectively. Rocket stove contributes the least impact on the environment and human health followed by Fan, Gasifier, and Charcoal stoves. The rate of energy consumption is also2.65, 1.20, 1.50 and 1.70 times less in rocket stove than in Three- Stone, Fan, Gasifier and Charcoal stove, respectively.