The Development of an Energy Efficient Electric Mitad for Baking Injeras in Ethiopia

The Development of an Energy Efficient Electric Mitad for Baking Injeras in Ethiopia

Jones, Robin (External organisation)
Diehl, J.C. (TU Delft Design for Sustainability)
Simons, Leon (Magic Ventures)
Verwaal, M. (TU Delft Design Engineering)

Design Engineering

2017

Preparation of Injera, the cultural staple bread fooditem in Ethiopia, is known for its intensive energy consumingcooking. Baking this food item in the traditional three stone stoves,with an efficiency of 5-15%, consumes huge amounts of firewoodand causes consequent problems like deforestation, global warmingand household air pollution. Electrical injera stoves (mitads) are asound alternative in Ethiopia because of the relatively wideavailability of electricity (hydropower). However, these electricalMitad have designs dating back to the 1960’s and are highlyinefficient as well and are overloading the electricity grid.Consequently, a research and design project called ‘Magic Mitad’was initiated to develop an energy-efficient electric injera mitad.Starting with the introduction of a new type of fuel-efficient bakingplate a range of research and design experiments were initiated tofurther optimize the energy-efficiency as well as the baking qualityof the Magic Mitad. In the first experiment the ‘start-up energy’ ofdifferent baking plates was tested in order to identify and select themost energy efficient one. During the next experiment, the chosentype of baking plate was used for baking injeras to study the heatdistribution. A uniform heat distribution is key to produce highquality injeras. From the result obtained it was concluded that adifferent type of heating element was needed. Ten types ofalternative heating elements were selected of which four weretested in a lab-setting. Ribbon wire heating element was selected,and optimized in its lay-out. Finally, the prototypes were tested inAddis Ababa on quality performance and energy-efficiencycompared to electrical clay mitads. The outcomes were successfulin the sense of quality and increased efficiency by 30%.

Clean Cooking
Ethiopia
Heat Distribution
Energy Efficiency
Injera
Kitchen Environment

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0b7d8d39-7742-4877-8a39-5e598daa1fed

https://doi.org/10.23919/DUE.2017.7931827

Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, SA

978-1-5090-6433-5

Proceedings of the 25th Domestic Use of Energy Conference: Towards Sustainable Energy Solutions for the Developing World

25th Domestic Use of Energy Conference, 2017-04-03 → 2017-04-05, Cape Town, South Africa

Institutional Repository

conference paper

© 2017 Robin Jones, J.C. Diehl, Leon Simons, M. Verwaal