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

SCORE是一个180万美元的财团，旨在通过了解非洲和亚洲农村社区的能源需求，并与他们合作开发制造价格合理的多功能家用电器的能力，显著改善非洲和亚洲的健康、生活质量、经济增长以及社会和教育机会，从而减少贫困。这将结合高效烹饪炉、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。该合作伙伴关系汇集了四所英国大学，一家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），一家国际慈善组织（Practical Action）以及非洲和亚洲的许多大学。它还将进行合作，以确保这些设备在技术、经济和社会层面上都是可接受的，并为社区提供足够的空间，从SCORE的制造、维修和创新应用中发展众多业务。该装置的发电和制冷部分的操作将基于热声过程的新应用。从根本上说，这些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流体或运动部件；电力提取是由一个线性交流发电机完成的。该装置的概念是基于经过验证的热声斯特林发动机和由洛斯阿拉莫斯，美国国家航空航天局和美国军方开发的冰箱，其应用包括：卫星系统和雷达阵列的冷却，气体液化和低温，利用余热进行空调，分离二元气体混合物和许多其他。拟议的工作在以下三个方面有显著的创新：1)研究将热声发动机、线性交流发电机和冷却箱结合在一个单一的装置中，由生物质炉提供动力，这是以前从未尝试过的；2)设计一种坚固耐用且价格低廉的线性交流发电机，可以很容易地批量生产；3)从低成本的角度进行整体系统设计，应用本土材料，使用当地制造技能和简单组装。与目前生产的高成本、高技术的热声系统相比，这是主要的研究问题。这些挑战构成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年将主要侧重于进行必要的社会和科学研究，而后2年将广泛侧重于技术移交，包括有代表性的实地试验和在目标社区的广泛传播。

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.