SCORE - (S)tove for (CO)oking, (R)efrigeration and (E)lectricity supply: an affordable appliance for remote and rural communities

SCORE是一个180万人的财团，旨在显著改善健康、生活质量、经济增长以及社会和教育机会，从而通过了解非洲和亚洲农村社区的能源需求并与他们合作，发展制造负担得起的多功能家用电器的能力，从而减少非洲和亚洲的贫困。这将结合高效烹饪炉子、发电机和冰箱(冷藏箱)的功能，称为SCORE，并可能通过燃烧一系列生物质产品来提供燃料。这一合作伙伴关系包括四所英国大学、一个领先的美国研究中心(洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室)、一家跨国电子产品制造商(GP Acoustics)、一个国际慈善组织(Practical Action)以及非洲和亚洲的许多大学。它还将合作，确保这些设备在技术、经济和社会层面上是可接受的，并确保社区有足够的空间发展从制造、维修和创新应用到SCORE的众多业务。拟议设备的发电和冰箱部分的运行将基于热声工艺的新应用。基本上，它们依赖于声场和固体边界之间的相互作用，导致一系列流体和热力学过程，这些过程不需要传统意义上的有害工作液或移动部件；电力提取由线性发电机完成。该设备的概念基于洛斯阿拉莫斯、NASA和美国军方开发的经过验证的热声斯特林发动机和冰箱，应用包括：卫星系统和雷达阵列的冷却、气体液化和低温、利用废热进行空调、分离二元气体混合物等。拟议工作在三个方面有重大创新：1)研究以生物质炉为动力的热声发动机、线性交流发电机和冷箱在单一设备中的组合，这是以前从未尝试过的；2)设计一种坚固耐用、价格低廉、易于大规模生产的线性交流发电机；3)从低成本、应用本土材料、利用当地制造技能和组装简单的角度进行整体系统设计，这是与迄今生产的高成本和高科技热声系统相比的主要研究课题。这些挑战构成了拟议的科学和技术工作方案的支柱。在整个5年期间，该项目将分为两个阶段：前3年将主要侧重于开展必要的社会和科学研究，而后2年将主要侧重于技术移交，包括具有代表性的实地试验和在目标社区中广泛传播。

SCORE, a 1.8M consortium, aims to significantly improve health, quality of life, economic growth and social and educational opportunities, and thus reduce poverty in Africa and Asia by understanding the energy needs of their rural communities and working with them to develop the capability to manufacture an affordable versatile domestic appliance. This will combine the functionalities of a high-efficiency cooking stove, an electricity generator and a refrigerator (cool box), referred to as SCORE, and may be fuelled by burning a range of biomass products. The partnership brings together four UK universities, a leading US research centre (Los Alamos National Laboratory), a multi-national electrical goods manufacturer (GP Acoustics), an international charitable organisation (Practical Action), and numerous universities in Africa and Asia. It will also collaborate to ensure that the devices are acceptable at a technological, economic and social level and that there is sufficient scope for the communities to develop numerous businesses from the manufacture, repair and innovative applications of SCORE.The operation of the electricity generating and refrigerator parts of the proposed device will be based on a novel application of thermoacoustic processes. Fundamentally, these rely on the interaction between an acoustic field and solid boundaries, leading to a range of fluid- and thermo-dynamic processes, which do not require harmful working fluids or moving parts in the traditional sense; the electrical power extraction is accomplished by a linear alternator.The concept of the device is based on the proven thermoacoustic Stirling engines and refrigerators developed by Los Alamos, NASA and the US military for applications including: cooling of satellite systems and radar arrays, gas liquefaction and cryogenics, use of waste heat for air conditioning, separation of binary gas mixtures and many others. There is a significant level of innovation in the proposed work in three respects: 1) research into the combination of the thermoacoustic engine, linear alternator and cool box in a single device, powered by a biomass stove, which has not been attempted before,2) design of a rugged and inexpensive linear alternator that could be easily mass-produced, 3) the overall system design from the viewpoint of low cost, application of indigenous materials, use of local manufacturing skills and simplicity of assembly, which are major research issues compared to the high-cost and high-tech thermoacoustic systems produced so far. These challenges form the backbone of the proposed scientific and technological work programme.Within the overall 5-year duration, there will be two stages to this project: the first 3 years will mainly focus on conducting the necessary social and scientific research, while the last 2 years will broadly focus on technology hand-over, including representative field trials and a wide dissemination among target communities.