Innovative portable solar cooker using the packaging waste of humanitarian supplies

Cooking facilities are among the most needed commodities for people living and experiencing emergencies. Furthermore, within humanitarian camps, waste management is among the most critic problems. This paper revises the existing solutions and presents an easy-use portable solar cooker derived from the recycled cardboard packaging waste. The developed device is fully integrated to a complete kitchen-set box enclosed to the humanitarian aids, becoming a completely independent cooking system that does not require external traditional energy sources. The cooker allows heating, cooking meals and boiling water as well as purifying raw water from rivers and lakes. The Authors designed, developed and tested several solar cooker prototypes to define the best shape and its expected efficiency range. The laboratory field-evidences are encouraging and, in the near future, several prototypes are sent to humanitarian camps for their operative test. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.