The sound of efficient power

Developing an all-in-one cooker, fridge and generator is hard enough, but one group of scientists and engineers have gone one step further and hope to power it with sound.

The £2m SCORE (Stove for Cooking, Refrigeration and Electricity) project brings together experts from across the world to develop a generator capable of both cooking and cooling food.

The stove could have a huge impact on the lives of people in the world’s poorest communities. Across the world, two billion people use open fires as their primary cooking method - fires that have been found to be highly inefficient, with 93% of the energy generated lost. And when used in enclosed spaces, smoke from the fires can cause health problems.

SCORE Project Director Paul Riley said: “Designed specifically for use by the rural poor in the developing world, SCORE is a unique design that generates electricity and can cool as well as cook. Manufactured on site it will give many business opportunities that should increase uptake by tenfold compared with current stove designs thus significantly improving health, education and wealth.”

The researchers are using thermoacoustic technology to convert biomass fuels - such as wood - into energy to power the appliance. The wood is burned to produce heat. This then goes into a specially shaped pipe which produces areas of high and low gas pressure in such a way as to generate sound (in similar way to a singing kettle). The sound energy is then converted into electricity by a linear alternator which is then used to power the device.

Researchers from the University of Manchester, Imperial College, the University of Nottingham and Queen Mary, University of London are involved in the consortium.Other partners are the international charity Practical Action, Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US and GP Acoustics – a company that produces loud speaker equipment.