[Stoves] News: World Bank blog on eradicating household air pollution

Crispin Pemberton-Pigott crispinpigott at outlook.com
Mon Apr 17 16:17:18 CDT 2017


Dear Nikhil

Thanks for that contribution. It is obvious that the 'war on solid fuels' is based on the erroneous assumption that technologies for burning the are static and nothing can be invented that ‎will change whatever relationship they found between the state of the fuel (solid) and the state of the alternative (liquid).

It reminds me of the assertion in about 1840 that everything that will ever be invented already had been.

A tight biomass stove with no improvement in combustion performance connected to a tight chimney and installed in a deep rural area in any of those three countries ‎will have a very positive benefit for the family living in the home.

The Fresh Air study just completed in the pilot study homes in Kyrgyzstan showed that advanced stoves operated improperly result in less than optimal results, underlining the ‎importance of user training. When additional training was provided the IAQ of those homes aligned with the others.

Tests conducted by Altanzul Jargalsaikhan on a TJ4.0 raw coal stove ‎showed once again that solid fuels can be burned with PM emissions below the detection limit.

I encourage other researchers looking at advanced combustion systems to bring forth additional evidence. I attended the Langfang Stove Expo yesterday with many of the people active in such research. We toured a factory in the afternoon that manufactures ‎a coal stove with features remarkably similar to the TJ4.0 and a biomass briquette stove that is essentially the same but with secondary air provided (this being an essential difference necessary to get a similar level of performance).

If I were funded by the LP Gas association I might sing a different tune but as an independent voice I can point out what is happening on the ground.

If cost, access and health benefits are the principal goals, then the Kyrgyzstan Stove Pilot has demonstrated in the space of one year (from product development to IAQ and personal exposure monitoring) that these benefits are available to a much broader audience than only those with access to LPB, subsidised or not.

Further, the chances of heating homes in Naryn District of Kyrgyzstan at -35 C with LPG are, in my lifetime, zero.

We should concern ourselves with the issues of the age in which we live. ‎For hundreds of millions of people that is access to modern energy in the form of affordable, advanced solid fuel combustion technologies.

Regards
Crispin


Eradicating household air pollution will pay for itself<http://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/eradicating-household-air-pollution-will-pay-itself> 7 Aprill 2017
Extract:

"Two major interventions have been assessed in a recent World Bank study in Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua:

i)        the introduction of improved biomass cook stoves that contain enclosed chimneys to vent fumes directly outside from the burning of solid fuels; and

ii)      the replacement of solid fuels with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Benefits of both interventions outweigh the costs as shown by benefit-cost ratios exceeding one (Table 1).  Previous studies by the World Bank in Colombia, Hidalgo in Mexico, and Peru show similar results.  Roughly 40–70 percent of the benefits come from improved health. Fuelwood savings and time savings also contribute equally to the benefits. The cost of switching to LPG stoves is higher than for improved cookstoves because of the cost of LPG fuel. However, the health benefits of switching to LPG are significantly higher than for improved cookstoves. In other words, improved cookstoves may be the most efficient solution as reflected by the high benefit-cost ratios, but not the most effective solution.  This implies that in order to reduce household air pollution to desired levels, eventually there will need to be a switch from solid fuels to LPG or electricity.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nikhil Desai
(India +91) 909 995 2080
Skype: nikhildesai888

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