[Stoves] Low-cost interventions to reduce emissions and fuel consumption in open wood fires in rural communities

Tue Oct 13 03:45:23 CDT 2020

Hat's off to you Kevin - this is so clever!

I've been telling many people about this on my travels around Kenya and
from limited follow up that I've had more than half of them are very
satisfied with this. I hope you get all the support you need on spreading
the good word and please let me know if I can help in any way.

Hongera sana,

Teddy.

Teddy Kinyanjui
Sustainability Director

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On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 9:55 PM K McLean <info at sun24.solar> wrote:

> Here is the Stockholm Environment Institute's article
> <https://www.sei.org/featured/open-fire-cut-fuel-usage-cooking-emissions-in-half/>
> about the scientific journal article
> <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0973082620302775>:
>
> A simple addition to an open fire could cut fuel usage and cooking
> emissions in half
>
> A new study finds that rock beds and grates can reduce wood consumption by
> 31–58% and emissions by 51–84%.
>  Topics and subtopics
> Energy <https://www.sei.org/topic/energy/> : Household energy
> <https://www.sei.org/topic/household-energy/?parent_topic=energy>
>
> Gender <https://www.sei.org/topic/gender/> : Household energy
> <https://www.sei.org/topic/household-energy/?parent_topic=gender>
>
> Health <https://www.sei.org/topic/health/> : Household energy
> <https://www.sei.org/topic/household-energy/?parent_topic=health>
>
> Photo: Rob Bailis / SEI
>
> Rural Vietnamese households can significantly reduce their wood
> consumption and emissions by adding rock-beds or grates to their open
> cooking fires, according to a new, open-access study
> <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0973082620302775> in *Energy
> for Sustainable Development.*
>
> SEI teamed up with the non-governmental organization Sun24 and SNV
> Netherlands Development Organisation to test the effectiveness of these
> simple low-cost approaches. The team found that rock-beds and ceramic or
> metal grates could reduce wood consumption by 31–58% and emissions by
> 51–84%.
>
> “Our findings indicate that easy, inexpensive modifications to existing
> cooking methods can make a real difference, by cutting down on
> unsustainable fuelwood harvesting, reducing climate impacts, and improving
> air quality,” said SEI Senior Scientist Rob Bailis,
> <https://www.sei.org/people/rob-bailis/> an author of the study. “Making
> these changes could also ease the burden of collecting wood, a task that
> often falls to women.”
>
> Many current programs focus on the cleanest cooking options – such as
> stoves that use electricity, liquid petroleum gas (LPG), or ethanol –
> because they have very low emissions and are more likely to reduce health
> risks from indoor cooking.
>
> But these ideal options are not available everywhere: the majority of
> rural households in sub-Saharan Africa have minimal access. In South Asia,
> access to clean fuels has increased, but consumption remains low
> <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-019-0429-8>. Where clean cooking
> options are available, many people use them alongside traditional fuels and
> cookstoves, a practice known as fuel or stove “stacking”.
>
> The modifications in the study are unlikely to reduce health impacts. But
> they are attractive transitional solutions because they are inexpensive,
> simple to maintain, easy to replace, and require no change in cooking
> practices.
>
> Cooking options tested in this study (clockwise from upper left): iron bar
> baseline stove; rock-bed; ceramic grate; and metal grate with rocks. Photo:
> SEI, SNV and Sun24.
>
> For the study, researchers tested these modifications against a baseline
> iron bar stove, using both lab and field tests. The results were consistent
> and robust across all tests: the modifications reduced wood consumption and
> emissions.
>
> A survey of users also revealed a high degree of satisfaction, indicating
> that they would likely use these modifications for most or all of their
> cooking.
>
> “Rock beds are free and require little behavior modification. They also
> reduce the drudgery of collecting firewood – a task that often falls to
> women — and so are readily adopted. This makes training simple and
> inexpensive. We estimate that millions of households are using rock beds as
> a result of our training in a dozen African countries in partnership with
> the Catholic and Anglican Churches,” said Kevin McLean, president of Sun24.
> “In addition to the time saved collecting firewood, the cumulative
> reductions in forest destruction, indoor and ambient air pollution and
> climate damage are enormous.”
>
> Sun24 promotes these low-cost approaches in rural communities throughout
> the Global South, with current activity focused in sub-Saharan Africa. The
> recent study was part of a partnership with SNV and SEI to better
> understand the impacts of these efforts.
>
> Bastiaan Teune, Global Cookstoves Coordinator for SNV explained, “At the
> request of Sun 24, SNV tested this cooking concept in a laboratory in Hanoi
> that was set up with support from EnDev. As we have an experienced team
> that has conducted many household energy surveys, we were poised to bust
> the rock bed myth. To our astonishment, the lab and the field tests only
> confirmed the positive impact of rocks and grates as predicted by Sun 24.
> We see great potential for our energy projects in remote and refugee
> settings”.
>
> On Wed, Sep 30, 2020 at 3:17 PM <ajheggie at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> The listbot held this message with an over large attachment, I have
>> included a link instead.
>>
>> Andrew
>>
>> "Attached is a recently published article analyzing the testing (SWBT,
>> CCT, KPT) by SNV of rock beds and grates in open-fire cookstoves.  (No
>> paywall.)  Here is the online version.  The article was written by Rob
>> Bailis (Stockholm Environment Institute) and an SNV team led by
>> Bastiaan Teune.
>>
>> Free rocks on the ground below an open-fire cookstove improve
>> efficiency by a third.  Rocks on a metal grate (< USD 0.50) improve
>> efficiency by almost half.  Emission reductions are even greater.
>>
>> Please consider these findings when reviewing “The State of Access to
>> Modern Energy Cooking Services", just released by the World Bank.
>> This report states that $150 billion per year is needed to achieve
>> universal access to modern energy cooking services by 2030.  For a
>> minuscule sliver of that cost, rocks beds and rock beds with grates
>> can get us much closer to this goal.
>>
>> These modifications do not make open-fire cookstoves clean.  But they
>> do substantially decrease:
>>
>> Time spent by women collecting wood.
>> Deforestation
>> Ambient air pollution
>> Climate damage
>>
>>
>> Thank you,
>> Kevin"
>>
>> Kevin McLean, President
>> Sun24
>> https://sun24.solar  Sun24 Cookstoves Overview
>> Tampa, Florida, USA
>> +1 (813) 505-3340
>>
>>
>>
>> https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0973082620302775?token=6CEAA3CF7FB955D21AF0CC1F7CD01105C565A6CD80337EDEA8A8F19A7CDB7E0902BACA034ED62399A48BB6B42C6405DC
>>
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