[Stoves] Country by Country Project List?

Mon Apr 18 17:41:45 CDT 2011

Dear Jan

Great questions.

You can contact Peter Coughlin who is making the POCA (Maputo Ceramic
Stove)(also on this list). Also there is stove activities conducted by the
Industrial Design Department of the University of Johannesburg, and the
SeTAR Centre which is situated at one end of the building which houses the
ID department. 

There has been a long project based at Eduardo Mondlane University in
Maputo. There are others. There is some sort of coordination body for energy
and they will be good to contact (ask Peter C). 

I do not know of anything going on in Angola. A report was prepared about
cooking there and it is very heavily wood, not charcoal or other fuels.

ST&P, nothing rumoured this far south.

Clay: the POCA is made from clay because of cost. Metal stoves are expensive
and Maputo has few skilled artisans. There is little production capacity,
and the idea is to make a very large impact on the charcoal consumption of
the city. It was not envisaged in the beginning to make the POCA stoves
using rotary equipment (jigger) but a press. Pressed products are even
better than the 'turned' ones.

Clay in Maputo is about $7 per ton. Steel is $25,000. But that was not the
only point. The Maputo Ceramic Stove project was one which intended (and
did) make a complete break with the improved stove products of the past,
none of which are particularly good or even interesting.

There were two goals: to make a stove from a modern ceramic that benefitted
from the full knowledge and expertise of modern clay engineering, and
simultaneously to take advantage of what was then the state of the art
relating to charcoal burning. We succeeded in both. ProBEC, the initiator of
the project, was implementing an 'access to modern energy' initiative funded
by DGIS (Netherlands gov't). The goal was to make 350,000 stoves that were
cheaper, lasted longer, and burned better than the traditional metal device.

In the end, the material used is a very advanced material in terms of the
knowledge that went into it. There are in fact three material choices at
this time, not just one. Part of the success was to view the product as
needing something as good as could be made, not just something scraped up
from the side of the road. Little is known about clays used in stoves, in
spite of many years of testing and manufacturing. It is all 'art' not
science. Now, after 5 years, a great deal more is known about why clay in
most stoves only lasts a year (or as little as a week) and what to do about
it. 

The future of stoves is ceramic and glass. Both materials are durable, cheap
and mass producible, and can be strong though usually aren't. Steel is
expensive, not locally made, needs a lot of transport and taxes, and is
often bought through exploitative relationships. It is easy to process in
bulk if the scale is large enough, but so is clay.

The design is a different issue. In fact there is a metal version of the
POCA which needs a bit of attention as its performance is not as good and
there is no reason for it to be like that. Perhaps we can pay attention to
that product in 2011/12. The design is a radical departure from the Jiko
even though it is also round. It saves approximately 15% of the fuel a Jiko
uses but has a much better combustion efficiency (CO/CO2 ratio). It is also
being used to roast meat in an inverted position, with the (removable) fuel
bowl placed in the inverted body. See attached (Photo, Peter Coughlin).
Compared with the baseline metal stove (which is not all that bad a range of
products) it saves >40% of the fuel it operated haphazardly and 60% if
operated expertly.

Clay cost was a major factor. It costs about $10 to make a Jiko anywhere
because there is a lot of metal in it, and the liners are not cheap, nor
particularly durable. It takes a long time to develop a clay body, usually a
year at least, and it is only valid for that one site. The approach taken
for the POCA was to work out why clay breaks in stoves, and what to do about
it, changing all aspects of the mix and looking for better performance.
There are many misconceptions about clays and ceramics throughout the stove
community which may explain why clay is often rejected as a material for
widespread use. In Asia a clay stove that lasts a year is considered good.
Even lasting a year, if they were well designed and had good control of air
for higher heat transfer, they would break in a few minutes when subjected
to the temperatures that would be encountered. This applies to 'artisanal
clays' as one finds here and there along rivers. When a company finds a
working formula, they tend to make valuable products not stoves. The
StoveTec products are examples of the stove designer going to the clay
producer and working around the existing, known material. The soon to be
arriving GIZ 7.6 stove, a variation of the 7 series coal stoves, will be
able to accommodate cheap production refractory bricks (about $1.25) that
will last pretty much indefinitely. 

Such materials were not available in Maputo so we developed then imported,
and are now substituting a really good, low thermal expansion clay (the
cracking problem is an expansion problem). Such materials, especially the
stronger ones, are much more durable than metal. They can be technically
demanding but not necessarily so. In any case, looking ahead 20 or 50 years,
ceramics and glass (borosilicate glass) are going to dominate these products
because they are basically eternal. They can be remarkable cheap when mass
produced. They can even generate electricity and shed light! Metals will
struggle to keep up.

The POCA can be treated as an insert in a larger metal stove, especially a
multiple burner one. The major advantage is not the material, but the
combustion and fuel savings. When people learn how to light a smaller fuel
load, breaking it up to increase the surface area, it can save a lot of fuel
without anything more than 2 ceramic parts. It has preheated primary air,
separated preheated secondary air, a proper flame space above the fuel
(notoriously missing from virtually all charcoal stoves including the Maputo
baseline products), and can be produced rapidly.  The product has a high
performance repeatability index assuring funders that it delivers the goods.
It can be stacked and shipped. 

I would be happier of the material they have chosen to make it from was
stronger - there are two choices available. I understand from Peter that a
very much improved material will be introduced soon. Having seen the light,
so to speak, about the materials and combustor design, there is now a new
target for other designers and producers. It is particularly efficient when
simmering if operated well (over 60%) without adding a performance enhancing
skirt (which anyone could do) or finned pots (which are inevitable).

ProBEC was recently given a major energy project implementation award, with
the POCA mentioned specifically as the main reason. It is not sweeping the
stove world but it has gained recognition from many who understand its
technical advances, made in an extremely deprived local environment.
Mozambique was at that time the second poorest country in the world.

Best regards

Crispin in Johannesburg

+++++++

I'm new to this website and am wondering if anyone aware of a
country-by-country summary of clean cookstove projects in the developing
world?  I don't see one on the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves website
which is where I thought it would be.

I'm particularly interested in finding out what clean cookstove projects
have been undertaken or are currently being undertaken in Mozambique, Angola
or Sao Tome and Principe.   I know Crispin has been involved in Mozambique
with a ceramic stove and an organization called Greenlight isalso working
there.  Is anyone aware of any others?  

My question for Crispin is what is the argument for promoting ceramic stoves
versus more durable ones?  Is it primarily cost?  What is the difference in
cost?

Jan Bianchi

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