http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-heating_can

Look at the heating bag in an MRE. (probably the same tech as the cup mentioned above.) Chemical reaction heat is the most portable you'll find.

The MRE heating pouch, has a small packet full of a solid powder that reacts with water. Put just a touch of water in the pouch, and almost instantly you have a pouch hot enough to burn you. Toss in whatever packet of food you want to eat inside the pouch, and in a few minutes its hot and ready to eat, in the middle of nowhere.

_{The fun part, is the gas released from the chemical reaction is hydrogen, which is extremely flammable. The MRE pouches, are dual use. Once finished warming up you lunch, you can seal the pouch so it fills with pressurized hydrogen, then light the corner and toss it next to you buddy who is sitting peacefully in the forest easting his meal... and Blamo! he has MRE spaghetti all over his shirt. I must warn, that before conducting this immature stunt, you must be prepared to run, so lace up your boots, and be on the ready for an angry individual to chase you down.}

warning: Do not attempt the stunt in small text.

"i am currently designing some sort of self heating cookware for campers and hikers"

You are currently lost. Try to define the, "self heating cookware".

Is this is homework?!

Check out "thermite"; that might be a blast!

check out magnetic induction

We briefly toyed with the idea of developing polymer cookware with imbedded heaters. Gave up as the market survey was not encouraging. Watlow make such heaters. This and a charged battery are the best option in my opinion. No electronics needed if the heater is designed to operate at the battery voltage.

http://www.watlow.com/products/heaters/ht_polymer.cfm

Slow combustion of some chemicals, water reactions etc., may be light enough for a camper, but any form of battery that I can personally think of (is there a REALLY light and powerful battery around that does not cost vast amounts of cash!) is going to be too heavy or too expensive, probably both.

Campers/Hikers are usually (not always) people who want a cheap(er) holiday.....so price WILL play a role.

We go camping with a caravan and the best methods we have found for cooking while camping is an induction hob and a gas oven (the gas hob is still there if we go on a camping ground without electricity. (Remember one pays the camping site for electricity per day, whether one uses it or not!)

The induction hob generates heat ONLY in the pan,(little is re radiated) so that the caravan is not heated up to any great degree in high summer.....whereas a gas hob shoves out masses of extra heat into the atmosphere.

The gas oven also has extra 12volt and 220 volt fans (installed so as to also cool the fridge coil in hot environments) to take the hot air from around the oven and blow it outside....it works well, but not quite 100%, so we only use the oven if the weather is not too hot.....there are usually plenty of restaurants around....!

For people climbing mountains, where weight is paramount, it does not matter what it costs in terms of chemicals, so long as it is extremely light to carry.

But the other negative side is that many famous mountains (Everest for example) are totally cluttered with rubbish from expeditions just leaving it lying around after usage (not to mention a few dead bodies!!), so please do not design something that will make this problem even worse.......

you could make a solar cooker. Which will get energy from sun.

"please email me anything, mattvwgolf@hotmail.co.uk"

You are really desperate, aren't you.

Look at some old ww2 details - the army had self heating
cans of soup, etc. (60 years ago!)

I always remember my father "camping" with a "watch" kettle
on a "sticks" fire which only ever gave a cup of luke warm tea!
(two hours later!)

That is, for "speed" cooking you will need considerable energy.
If it's sunny a large magnifying glass idea may work; and if it's
stormy, some sort of wind driven electricity generator?
(In your back pocket?)

Just trying to help.

jt.

I once set my grandmothers house on fire. After the brigade came
and extinguished it my grandfather refused to ever let me in anymore??

Wasn't it both Grandma & Granpa's house???? Or did they live in 2 seperate houses?

What about a way of absorbing the excess body heat while climbing and then concentrating it into the food?

Could we have a bi-directional chemical reaction where some pellets would be placed in the hiker's coat internal pockets when he feels hot to regenerate them. Then at camp site, he would add a few drops of "something" the pellets to produce concentrated heat.

This would be re-usable and could reduce the littering of wild areas from fuel can disposal.

I'd recommend to build a machine that automatically chops wood,lights it and after cooking is self extinguished

The nearest I have got to that is a Pellets Stove.......absolutely fantastic!!!

It does not chop the wood though, nor load itself, though there are some that do that from a huge hopper, mine has only about a 10 Kilo hopper, that needs to be reloaded about once in 24 -36 hours of continuous running.....depending upon selected power level.