[Stoves] Thai Bucket Stove

Sun Dec 3 03:22:39 CST 2017

Let’s test the group with this one:

The Malgache is the West African version of a stove purported to have come from the Malagasy Republic (hence the name). It is a very simple charcoal stove and is now the baseline in much of West Africa.

How did it get from Madagascar to Senegal? Perhaps through a French programme?

Thanks
Crispin

Thanks Nikhil and Iwan

I heard about the Thai Bucket stove (in its current incarnation) from Robert, meaning he is the one who told me (?) or someone who was present – maybe it was Tig – that Robert was the one who designed it. Maybe he adapted  what he found. I do recall it was said to have been in ’82 which aligns with the things mentioned below. 1982 was also the year things got going on test methods with the French Bois De Feu and Eindhoven Group getting going full steam. Piet Visser and all that: KK Prasad and Peter Verhaart.

That was the year we started making improved stoves at TATU – Cecil and I – for cooking staff meals. Transkei Appropriate Technology Unit – also still alive in a new form.

This leads me to bring the unfortunate news that Robert is in grave condition in the Netherlands in ICU with malaria contracted a couple of weeks ago. He is an under-sung hero of the stove community, quietly, some say too quietly, organizing things and taking risks. One turned out to be a bit too risky. He was in Central Africa last month living on the edge (again).

Nikhil: can you narrow down the event regarding funding at all? I am writing something in answer to a question on C4D about the best way to bring funding into product development instead of product dissemination. It turns out, in historical perspective, that the stoves which are the most widely disseminated were nearly all designed on the public dime – little that there is of that. I find that amazing. Truly innovative stoves that became popular were not artisanal developments.  I don’t think that it is widely recognized.

Regards
Crispin

++++++

Crispin:

Could be ESMAP funding, for followup on earlier USAID work .
One 1993 paper<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fciteseerx.ist.psu.edu%2Fviewdoc%2Fdownload%3Fdoi%3D10.1.1.362.7044%26rep%3Drep1%26type%3Dpdf&data=02%7C01%7Ccrispinpigott%40outlook.com%7C53b235d54a704acb7c2508d53a1689a9%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636478790820191146&sdata=ZkQKByVDf0FhEHng2qS51HFVMc9RFpPIqdx0rXgpEh0%3D&reserved=0> that van der Plas was a co-author to only mentions "In Thailand, improved stoves development started in the private sector; this is true of other countries in Asia as well." It refers to several ESMAP-funded stove projects in Thailand. (Annes 2: Projects Surveyed for Study.)

This seems to be the most widely cited paper on the subject of what makes biomass stoves usable and used, but it is nearly 25 years ago. So much for the due diligence of the stove program financiers.

I had no idea that it was the inspiration for Kenyan Ceramic Jiko (KCJ), as reported here<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https:%2F%2Fwww.princeton.edu%2F~mauzeral%2Fwws402f_s03%2FJP.Shena.Elrington.pdf&data=02%7C01%7Ccrispinpigott%40outlook.com%7C53b235d54a704acb7c2508d53a1689a9%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636478790820191146&sdata=eRQQgR3ee0F1L58IwSCD77Rn0FvijZJVdvNKrITo6ys%3D&reserved=0>: " The original design for the KCJ was inspired by an improved stove used throughout Thailand. This stove, the ‘Thai bucket,’ has an insulating liner composed of ceramic that was cemented from the top to the bottom of the... "

Reducing Indoor Air Pollution in Africa: A Review of Two Successful Intervention Programs and Recommendations for Future Intervention Efforts Shena M. Elrington May 2, 2003. Looks like a student paper for WWS 402f: Sustainable Development- Can We Do It? Prof. Denise L. Mauzerall.
I made an interesting discovery -- according to this<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yumpu.com%2Fen%2Fdocument%2Fview%2F7385282%2Fimproved-biomass-cooking-stove-for-household-use-pdf-101-mb-&data=02%7C01%7Ccrispinpigott%40outlook.com%7C53b235d54a704acb7c2508d53a1689a9%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636478790820191146&sdata=Lu2sVvKJmdGNsTwtHQssj3%2B1bNB8ErbwjkRIkkwj4sk%3D&reserved=0> 1982 paper submitted to the National Energy Administration, the Thai bucket stove is thought to have originated in China and could have been brought to Thailand a thousand years earlier (p. 33-34).

The report also says (p. 44) that Meta Systems Inc. Thai Group reviewed efficiency of various Thai bucket stoves in 1982. I was at Meta Systems in 1980-1 and learned my biomass balance work and cookstoves projects there. I probably know some folks who worked on that project.

I think the recommendations of this report 35 years ago (on p. 241-2) are still relevant.

Reinventing the wheel keeps subsequent generations employed in the good cause.

Nikhil

On Sun, Dec 3, 2017 at 12:10 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <crispinpigott at outlook.com<mailto:crispinpigott at outlook.com>> wrote:
Dear Friends

The Thai Bucket Stove was designed by Robert van der Plas in 1982. Does anyone know who funded that development? Did he do it as part of a project, or on his own?

Thanks
Crispin

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