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. 2023 Jul 19;9(8):e18253.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e18253. eCollection 2023 Aug.

Production and characterization of ecological fire starter from sawdust and vegetable oil

Kodji Ezéchiel  1 , Tize Koda Joel  2 , Marcel Hamda Soulouknga  3 , Djoulde Darman Roger  4
Affiliations

Production and characterization of ecological fire starter from sawdust and vegetable oil

Kodji Ezéchiel et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

The objective of this article aims to reduce indoor air pollution through the use of ecological fire starter (EFS) made from sawdust and vegetable oils. In the Far North region of Cameroon, plastic waste is used to ignite and stoke solid fuels fires, exposing mainly women and children who are responsible for cooking to health risks from indoor air pollution. Thus, the survey conducted among the population of the region shows that 96% of urban households use plastics waste made with LDPE, HDPE, PET, PS, PP and EVA as fire starter for solid fuels. In the region, 5544 tons of plastic used by households could emit approximately 15,314 tons of CO2 eq per year. The region has a manufacturing capacity of 1000 tons of EFS while its need is 894 tons in 2022. The lower heating value of the EFS varies between 31.914 ± 0.810 and 25.127 ± 0.026 MJ/kg, and have many ecological health and economic advantages. A household needs about 10 g of EFS to ignite solid fuel per day, with an annual expenditure ranging from 5.5 and US$ 7 to purchase EFS. Therefore, it is important to promote EFS through developing countries and look for another way to recover plastic waste.

Keywords: CO2 emission; Ecological fire starter; Plastic; Solid fuel and combustion; Vegetable oil; Wood sawdust.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Manufacturing process of EFS.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Non/ecological fire starter utilization rate.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Number of times meal preparation per day.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Ecological fire starters.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Burning test of EFS.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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