The cooker can generate intense heat for 10 minutes after commencing operation. A properly started cooker requires no additional attention till the cooking is completed. The overall cooking expedition would take only 40 – 45 minutes. The cooker is also capable of retaining heat, i.e., to stay on warm mode, for about 7 hours (a tried and tested value) without any additional fuel consumption.

Cooking rice taps a considerable share of energy of any household energy budget. Most modern households are in the practice of using electric rice cookers, which on average consumes about 15 electricity units per month. Yet others use various stoves, feeding them with an assortment of fuels at their disposal. Offering solutions to such common concerns, the National Engineering Research and Development Centre – better known as the NERD Centre – has come up with an innovative rice cooker that effectively addresses the needs of modern households.

Christened the ‘Biomass Rice Cooker’, this cooker ranks as one among the top energy efficient stoves in town, capable of cooking one kilo of rice with just a shell of one coconut – with ease and without soot.

The biomass rice cooker is simple in its design. The outermost cylindrical cover of the cooker is insulated. Inside this cylinder (outer saucepan) is placed the rice saucepan. The bottom of the outer saucepan is made of a high heat-conducting material, which efficiently transfers heat from the burning fuel to the interior saucepan, containing rice and correct amount of water. Between the two saucepans exists a gap to be filled with water (approximately one cup), which would be converted into steam during the cookery operation. The cooker is complete with a combustion cylinder to hold chips of coconut shells and a chimney to permit airflow during combustion.

The process, once again is simple. Pour one cup of water in to the outer saucepan and place the rice saucepan therein, with rice and water. Fill the combustion chamber with chips of a shell of one coconut – the coconut shells should be crushed into pieces measuring approximately one inch across. Ignite the chips from the top. Perhaps you may need a few droplets of kerosene to start the cooker in initial attempts, but this can be done away with practice.

Once the cooker is started, the water in the outer saucepan boils to produce steam. This boiling water plus steam system dissipates heat energy to the rice saucepan, cooking the rice. The rice saucepan does not come into direct contact with the flame therefore no soot accumulates.

The cooker can generate intense heat for 10 minutes after commencing operation. A properly started cooker requires no additional attention till the cooking is completed. The overall cooking expedition would take only 40 – 45 minutes. The cooker is also capable of retaining heat, i.e., to stay on warm mode, for about 7 hours (a tried and tested value) without any additional fuel consumption.

Apart from cooking rice, this cooker can also boil 3 litres of water, steam 100 string hoppers, cook any type of grain and even cook potatoes.

The average selling price of a biomass rice cooker in Sri Lanka is between Rs. 4400 to 5000 depending on the manufacturer. The operating cost involves no additional costs other than the cost of the fuel (coconut shells).

The biomass rice cooker is an invention of the NERD Centre and can be acquired from manufacturers licensed by the NERD Centre. The Government has identified this product as a highly important stove offering viable solutions to the looming energy crisis; the NERD Centre therefore, contemplates the wide popularisation of the cooker. The Centre is contactable on +94112236284.

The Biomass Rice Cooker receives its name because it uses biomass as the fuel. Biomass is organic material made from plants and animals. Coconut shells are a type of biomass fuel. Biomass is also a form of renewable energy, meaning that the resource is constantly replenished and never runs out. When burned, the chemical energy in biomass is released as heat.

Cooking is a low grade thermal requirement. Such low grade thermal requirements ideally need to be sufficed through the use of low quality energy resources like biomass, rather than through high quality energy resources like electricity or LP gas.

Biomass can pollute the air when it is burned, though not as much as fossil fuels. Burning biomass does release carbon dioxide – a greenhouse gas – but nearly all of this is re-fixed through a process known as photosynthesis in green plants. Burning biomass therefore is said to be a carbon neutral deal, meaning that it does not produce net carbon dioxide.

Coconut consumption is only too common a practice in Sri Lanka. Therefore gathering fuel for the rice cooker would be no big deal to an average family. But, instead of taking the availability of coconut shells for granted, the NERD Centre has also made available an alternative wood chip pack, selling 200 g at just Rs. 1.50.