Standards for Biomass Cookers in West Africa: Application on A Cooking Stove Used in Benin

Nowadays, throughout the world, the sector of import, manufacture and use of cookers is governed by regulations. These regulations set criteria for counttry’s import, manufacture and use of cookers. These regulations aim to reduce the anthropic pressure exerted by cooking stoves on forests due to the high consumption of wood energy as fuel for some of them. They also aim to reduce the footprint of cooking stoves on the climate and the well-being of users by limiting the emission factors of these stoves. Most Asian countries such as China and India are more advanced than West African countries in the field of cookers. These Asian countries have in most cases regulations governing the cooking equipment sector. In West Africa, only a few countries have such regulations. On the one hand, this article aims to list the standards of cooking equipment available in West Africa and test to assess a cooking stove following the test protocols provided for by these standards. On the other hand, the article aims to show the footprint of cooking stoves with regard to the well-being of users but also the environment. The adapted approach consists of carrying out in-depth documentary research through databases, personal exchanges with laboratories and research centers that work in the domestic energy sector. It appears that only 2/16 West African countries have standards on biomass cookers. These include the FDNIS 1000 standard of Nigeria and the GS ISO 19867-1 standard of Ghana. The thermal performances of the tested stove are : 11.48%; 0.64 kW for the GS ISO 19867-1 standard and 10.66% in HP, 9.33% in BP; 9.52 kW in HP 7.871 kW in BP for the FDNIS 1000 standard. Statistics show that countries which have standards are sometimes at the intermediate level and sometimes at the lower level in terms of exposure to problems related to the wood energy sector.