According to a recent (26 Nov 2009) report from UNDP-WHO 56% or 3 billion people rely on solid fuels for cooking. In Sub Saharan Africa the number is 620 million people or 82% of the population. 90% is biomass and the rest fossil coal.
A traditional standard, reasonable 3-stove fire uses about 7-8 kg of dry wood per day. And say the average family in the developing world is 6 people (World average is 4) 3 billion divided with six is 500 million times 3000 kg is 1,5 billion tonnes.
An Improved Cooking Stove does the same job with 2-3 kg of dry wood.
While we are waiting for electricity to reach these people and for them to make enough money to afford such a luxury, we should distribute the Improved Cooking Stove technology and Sustainable Fuel Production concept. This would half the overall use of biomass and possibly more than half the need to cut down trees as we would also make pellets of from forest (sawdust) and agriculture residues (from rice husk to straw) not used for any purpose today.
The main three results would be:
1) Many of the 2 million women and children dying from respiratory illnesses would not die and many, many more would not suffer!
2) We would possible save 5 million ha of forest every year (say there is 200 MT/ha of dry biomass) if we cut down half the amount of trees.
3) If we measure the saving in green house gases ONLY from the reduction in biomass used and ONLY in the 1,5 tonnes/1 tonne biomass of CO2. the reduction is 1,1 billion into account.
However, if we take a closer look at the statistics, more than 10% of the Biomass is actually Charcoal, which takes 5 times it weight in production and 6-12 times higher GHG emissions. If we replaced charcoal with virgin/plain biomass, this would save:
Another 5 million ha of forest and another 1,1 billion of CO2, equivalents.
If this concept was implemented it would equal 2,2 billion CERs. 2009 the total yearly reduction in ALL CMD project will be 329 million CERs.
This is what the developing countries should have brought with them to Copenhagen!
This article makes me think that the western countries should be more concerned in giving the local people the means which would help them subsist (at least) using the local resources. Instead, their biggest worry is to give them humanitarian aid and organise so called “free elections”. These things, obviously, don’t move things forward.
The cooking stoves you present sound really useful. This is the first article I read about this kind of projects. Do write more.
Hi Tomas,your project is very interesting and i’ll like to connect with you to see how we can expand this technology.It’s a nice and very useful initiative.
KUDOS!!!
Hi,
This jiko is good. Coming from rural Kenya, we have used the saw-dust cooker for quite a while in my mothers house, the challenge however is getting the saw dust. It is much easier to collect firewood from our own backyard than to buy rare saw-dust.
To sell this innovation, you need to show the rural folks where the fuel (saw dust or rice husks) will come from and at what cost. Bearing in mind that if they have to travel to get it they will hardly buy the idea.
Keep me in the loop and let me know the developments.
Eunice
Dear Eunice,
Yes, generally sawdust and any small biomass is difficult to handle and use for cooking fuel as is. What we do is to compress the sawdust into a pellet that is maybe 8-10 mm thick and a couple of cm long. This provides for a much better combustion in an Improved Cooking Stove.
Please spread the word and if you know of anyone who has large amounts of forest/wood or agriculture residue. Please connect them with me. tomas.persson@greenforze.com
Happy Holidays!
Hi,
Great idea – I leave in rural Kenya and get disturbed everytime i see a lorry carrying firewood – which is very frequent (actually its not only the rural folks who use firewood – even big institutions in towns, so a commercial version is required).
Am ready & willing to partner in my region.
munene
unfortunately the sawdust is a product of trees which is what we want to preserve. Trees have yet to be planted in many African countries since we have killed all the trees . However we are forced to cut whatever is available . If the jiko can use woood in an economical way that is what we would need. Sawdust is very rare to get to .It is illegal to cut trees in Kenya without authorization both in forest and personal.
However your Jiko is better than open fire.
What we need is bio fuel i.e grow trees which produce seeds which can be pressed to obtain oil for multipurpose. for lamps , cooking and ran diesel cars.
biomess is for those who own cows . The biomess gascooker is not affordable for most people.
What of planting Jatropha for fuel?
I love your cooking stove and I think it a good market awaits it here in Nigeria on condition that the compressed saw dust is very much cheaper tahn charcoal which is popular here. I also would like to know what technilogy can be used to compress the saw dust. We have lots of sawmills in Nigeria where the saw dust is simply burned off as a means of disposing it.
Gordon