ASU GlobalResolve award winning fuel project in Ghana

March 3, 2010 · 0 comments

Arizona State University’s GlobalResolve recognized with international award

An international, multidisciplinary student team organized through the College of Technology and Innovation’s GlobalResolve initiative recently won the Mondialogo Engineering Bronze Award for a project designed to replace wood and coal cooking fuel in Ghana with clean-burning ethanol gel fuel similar to Sterno©. Their project was chosen to receive one of 32 awards from a field of nearly 1,000 submissions.

Mondialogo, a joint initiative of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) and Daimler, was founded to promote intercultural exchange. The Mondialogo engineering awards honor proposals addressing the most important challenges of today’s world – eradicating poverty, promoting sustainable development and responding to climate change.

ASU students are continuing to work with students from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to implement the award-winning proposal. It involves the design of a still for producing ethanol from locally grown crops, a stove that uses the gel fuel, and the use of local materials such as enzymes and gelling agents in fuel production. Project members hope that manufacture and sale of the ethanol fuel and stoves will serve to stimulate the local economy.

“This award will allow us to strengthen our partnership with KNUST and further support the work of graduate students at that university,” said Dan Killoren, a doctoral student at ASU and organizer of the ASU team.

The prize money, € 5,000 (US $7,387) will be used to fund further development and implementation of the project in Ghana.

Two team members from KNUST traveled to Stuttgart, Germany, last fall for the Mondialogo Engineering Award Symposium, where, along with winning teams from 28 countries, they presented their project to a jury of international engineering experts.

According to the winning proposal, there is an acute need for cleaner cooking methods in Ghana. Most of a Ghanaian household’s energy consumption is accounted for by cooking fuel, and more than 90 percent of cooking fuel is either wood or charcoal. Fuels such as kerosene and natural gas comprise only about 5 percent.

The smoke from cooking fires contributes to respiratory infections, which are a major worldwide health problem. According to World Health Organization data, more than two million people die every year from acute respiratory infections; pneumonia alone accounts for more than 20 percent of deaths among children younger than five.

“Using clean-burning ethanol as a fuel for cooking promises to reduce respiratory illness as well as greenhouse gas emissions in Ghana,” Killoren said.

Source – http://asunews.asu.edu/20100302_globalresolve

Australia – Influence of outdoor air pollution on indoor air

March 3, 2010 · 0 comments

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2010 Mar 1.

Characterization of particle number concentrations and PM(2.5) in a school: influence of outdoor air pollution on indoor air.

Guo H, Morawska L, He C, Zhang YL, Ayoko G, Cao M.

International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, Q 4001, Australia.

BACKGROUND, AIM AND SCOPE: The impact of air pollution on school children’s health is currently one of the key foci of international and national agencies. Of particular concern are ultrafine particles which are emitted in largequantities, contain large concentrations of toxins and are deposited deeply in the respiratory tract.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, an intensive sampling campaign of indoor and outdoor airborne particulate matter was carried out in a primary school in February 2006 to investigate indoor and outdoor particle number (PN) and mass concentrations (PM(2.5)), and particle size distribution, and to evaluate the influence of outdoor air pollution on the indoor air.

RESULTS: For outdoor PN and PM(2.5), early morning and late afternoon peaks were observed on weekdays, which are consistent with traffic rush hours, indicating the predominant effect of vehicular emissions. However, the temporal variations of outdoor PM(2.5) and PN concentrations occasionally showed extremely high peaks, mainly due to human activities such as cigarette smoking and the operation of mower near the sampling site. The indoor PM(2.5) level was mainly affected by the outdoor PM(2.5) (r = 0.68, p < 0.01), whereas the indoor PN concentration had some association with outdoor PN values (r = 0.66, p < 0.01) even though the indoor PN concentration was occasionally influenced by indoor sources, such as cooking, cleaning and floor polishing activities. Correlation analysis indicated that the outdoor PM(2.5) was inversely correlated with the indoor to outdoor PM(2.5) ratio (I/O ratio; r = -0.49, p < 0.01), while the indoor PN had a weak correlation with the I/O ratio for PN (r = 0.34, p < 0.01).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that occupancy did not cause any major changes to the modal structure of particle number and size distribution, even though the I/O ratio was different for different size classes. The I/O curves had a maximum value for particles with diameters of 100-400 nm under both occupied and unoccupied scenarios, whereas no significant difference in I/O ratio for PM(2.5) was observed between occupied and unoccupied conditions. Inspection of the size-resolved I/O ratios in the preschool centre and the classroom suggested that the I/O ratio in the preschool centre was the highest for accumulation mode particles at 600 nm after school hours, whereas the average I/O ratios of both nucleation mode and accumulation mode particles in the classroom were much lower than those of Aitken mode particles.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND PERSPECTIVES: The findings obtained in this study are useful for epidemiological studies to estimate the total personal exposure of children, and to develop appropriate control strategies for minimising the adverse health effects on school children.

Indoor Air Pollution Updates – Google Group

March 2, 2010 · 0 comments

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Indoor/outdoor air pollution in Indonesia

March 2, 2010 · 0 comments

 J Occup Environ Med. 2010 Feb 25.

Effects of Traffic-Related Outdoor Air Pollution on Respiratory Illness and Mortality in Children, Taking Into Account Indoor Air Pollution, in Indonesia.

Kashima S, Yorifuji T, Tsuda T, Ibrahim J, Doi H.  From the Department of Epidemiology (Dr Kashima, Dr Yorifuji, Ms Ibrahim, Dr Doi), Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan; Department of Environmental Health (Dr Yorifuji), Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass; and Department of Environmental Epidemiology (Dr Tsuda), Okayama University Graduate School of Environmental Science, Okayama, Japan.

OBJECTIVE:: To evaluate the effects of outdoor air pollution, taking into account indoor air pollution, in Indonesia.

METHODS:: The subjects were 15,242 children from 2002 to 2003 Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey. The odds ratios and their confidence intervals for adverse health effects were estimated.

RESULTS:: Proximity increased the prevalence of acute respiratory infection both in urban and rural areas after adjusting for indoor air pollution. In urban areas, the prevalence of acute upper respiratory infection increased by 1.012 (95% confidence intervals: 1.005 to 1.019) per 2 km proximity to a major road. Adjusted odds ratios tended to be higher in the high indoor air pollution group.

CONCLUSION:: Exposure to traffic-related outdoor air pollution would increase adverse health effects after adjusting for indoor air pollution. Furthermore, indoor air pollution could exacerbate the effects of outdoor air pollution.

Better Burning, Better Breathing: Improving Health with Cleaner Cook Stoves

March 2, 2010 · 0 comments

Environ Health Perspect Mar 2010, 118:a124-a129. doi:10.1289/ehp.118-a124

Better Burning, Better Breathing: Improving Health with Cleaner Cook Stoves.

Full-text: http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.118-a124

Adler T.

Excerpt from the article: Is Better Good Enough?

Data from studies such as RESPIRE will help answer an important question facing clean-stove advocates and public health experts: how much must concentrations of smoke in homes be reduced in order to improve families’ health? When tested in the field, few of the improved cook stoves used in India achieve more than a 50–60% reduction in indoor air pollution levels and a 50% reduction in fuel use, says Simon Bishop, policy and communications manager at the Shell Foundation, which promotes improved cook stoves as a primary solution to indoor air pollution.

Whereas manufacturer testing in the laboratory may indicate a stove is capable of producing far less CO and suspended PM10 compared with traditional cook stoves, field conditions—particularly the significant natural variations in operator behavior and the type, size, and moisture content of the fuel used—can lead to substantially lower performance than might be predicted from lab tests, according to Kirk Smith. There are advanced stoves but “we don’t think any of them are truly as advanced as they should be,” Smith says.

“The existing improved stoves have to go some way before they can meet a health-based standard, but they are much, much better than the traditional stoves we have now,” says Kalpana Balakrishnan, head of the Department of Environmental Health Engineering at Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai. Studies by Balakrishnan and colleagues suggest even existing cleaner cook stoves will contribute to an immediate improvement in children’s health. And for many populations, especially the poorest, it may be that current technologies are a reasonable intermediate step—just “not a policy end point,” says Bruce. He adds, “We have to be pragmatic.”

None of the existing stove technology was commercially available 3 years ago, and even better devices will be introduced in the next 3 years, points out Jacob Moss, a senior advisor at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and director of the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air, an international collaboration comprising more than 340 partners. “If supply and distribution networks can be developed now, the newer technologies will be able to be substituted into them as they reach the market,” Moss says.

Next on the Agenda
Although smoke from cook stoves is clearly a significant public health issue, another one is larger: malnutrition. “We’ve just started to look at programs that are seeking to integrate household environmental interventions for household energy, water, and sanitation with nutrition,” says Bruce.

It’s unclear yet whether these integrated programs are more successful if run together or separately, Bruce says. There’s plenty of opportunity to find out: Experts estimate 600–800 million homes worldwide need improved cook stoves, and according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, more than 1 billion people were undernourished in 2009.

Mexico – Ecological Smoke from Fuel Efficient Stoves

March 1, 2010 · 1 comment

MEXICO: Ecological Smoke from Fuel Efficient Stoves, By Emilio Godoy

SANTA MARÍA RAYÓN, Mexico, Feb 28, 2010 (IPS) – The lives of many rural women and children in Mexico are changing, and the country’s high deforestation rate could be reduced, as inexpensive fuel-efficient cook stoves are being distributed by non-governmental organisations with corporate and government support. The open cooking fires replaced by the improved stoves cause respiratory and eye infections, as well as severe burns, which are especially frequent among young children who stumble or fall into their mothers’ fire pits.

Acute respiratory infections are among the main causes of childhood morbidity and mortality in Mexico and many other poor countries around the world. The World Health Organisation (WHO), which has designated the issue as one of the four most critical global environmental problems, estimates that 1.6 million people, especially women and children, die prematurely each year from exposure to high levels of indoor smoke from home cooking and heating practices. Some 28 million people, out of a total population of 107 million, are dependent on firewood for cooking and heating in Mexico, using 2.5 kg of wood a day per person.

Mexico has 56 million hectares of forests, of which more than 500,000 hectares a year are felled, making this country second to Brazil in Latin America with respect to deforestation, in absolute terms. But different models of improved fuel-efficient stoves are helping to address the issues of deforestation caused by firewood use and health problems resulting from indoor air pollution from cooking fires.

One of the models in use in Mexico is the ONIL fuel-efficient wood-fired stove, named for its inventor Don O’Neal, a retired mechanical engineer from the U.S. who did not patent the technology so that anyone could use it.  The stove reduces wood consumption by 70 percent and virtually eliminates indoor smoke. Helps International, an NGO founded 26 years ago in the southwest U.S. state of Texas, set up a factory in April 2009 that produces ONIL stoves in Santa María Rayón, a municipality of 7,400 people near the city of Toluca, southwest of Mexico City.

The NGO, whose vice president is O’Neal, initially tested its fuel-efficient stove in neighbouring Guatemala, where it has already distributed thousands of units with the support of other NGOs and private companies and foundations. “At first, there was resistance to using the new technology, for cultural reasons, because women were used to cooking in their traditional indoor fire pits, which use large quantities of wood,” Helps International’s vice-president of international development, Richard Grinnell, told IPS.

The ONIL improved biomass stoves are made of locally available materials: clay for the combustion chamber, concrete blocks for the structure, and a steel or tin chimney that keeps the smoke out of the house, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions. ” This clean technology helps reduce firewood use and pipes harmful smoke and emissions outside of the dwelling,” the coordinator of the rural energy programme of the non-governmental Interdisciplinary Group for Appropriate Rural Technology (GIRA), Víctor Berrueta, told IPS.

Researchers that work with GIRA, which is based in Pátzcuaro, in the state of Michoacán, 325 km west of the Mexican capital, designed the Patsari fuel-efficient stove. The name of the stove means “the one that keeps” in the Purhepecha indigenous language, referring to its ability to preserve heat and guard over the health, environment and economy of rural households. The Patsari stoves are made of brick and cement, a combustion chamber where the wood is placed, metal hotplates and a prefabricated chimney.

Another improved cooking stove is the massive, earthen Lorena stove developed in 1976 in Guatemala by Larry Winiarski, technical director of the Aprovecho Research Centre based in the northwest U.S. state of Oregon, and other colleagues. Although the stove, which is made of rammed earth and takes its name from a combination of the Spanish words “lodo” (mud) and “arena” (sand), is cheap to build and has a chimney that removes smoke from the kitchen, it was found to absorb heat and use large amounts of firewood. 

The modern ONIL, Patsari and Winiarski rocket stove – which uses insulation to keep a fire burning hot – are more fuel-efficient, improved versions of the original Lorena stove. In the last few years, other models have appeared on the market, like the Justa stove, named for Justa Nunez of Suyapa, Honduras who helped design it, and the Túumben K’óoben stove, developed in Mexico. “Firewood is still the fuel of the poor. But the victims shouldn’t be blamed; when poverty is reduced, the use of wood will decline,” José Graziano da Silva, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, commented to IPS.

Of the more than 2,500 municipalities in Mexico, 150 have “very high” levels of firewood use, 450 have “high” levels of use, and 300 have “medium” levels of use, according to official figures. GIRA has installed around 30,000 fuel-efficient stoves in Mexico, and Helps International has installed nearly 15,300. Its plant in Santa María Rayón, near Toluca, produces 230 stoves a week, while its two factories in Guatemala make 160 a week. “The follow-up stage is the most important. We carry out training in the local communities to help people learn how to use, maintain and repair the stoves, and to help develop local skills,” said Grinnell.

One of the goals of the Mexican government’s Special Climate Change Programme is to have 500,000 fuel-efficient ecological stoves operating in Mexican households by 2012, to help curb the effects of climate change. “Among firewood users, there are species of trees that are preferred over others because they burn so well and produce less smoke,” said Professor Rafael Ortiz at the Autonomous University of Yucatán, in the state of the same name, 1,300 km southeast of the capital. “We can’t just blame the use of firewood as the cause of deforestation, although it is one decisive factor,” he told IPS.

A soon-to-be-published government study on the efficiency and safety of improved stoves examined four different models and found that the ONIL and Patsari were more efficient and effective than two others known as the Chiantli and the Citlali. In 2009, Mexico’s Secretariat (ministry) of Social Development put out a tender for purchasing ecological stoves for distribution, but it focused more on the price factor than on efficiency or durability, critics say. “Stoves that have not been tested in either laboratories or the field have been presented in the tender,” said GIRA’s Berrueta. “The stoves have to be evaluated, and minimum operating standards must be set. Any stoves that are distributed with public funds should be certified first.”

One difficulty lies in the lack of official standards for ecological stoves, which means manufacturers can assemble them according to their own criteria. “Governments shouldn’t just distribute stoves, but should raise awareness about the problems in question,” said Grinnell. FAO representative Graziano da Silva said fuel-efficient stoves are a good tool, but should be tried and tested before they are purchased and distributed. The ONIL stoves cost between 90 and 140 dollars, while the Patsari stove costs around 75 dollars. In both cases, subsidies from NGOs and the government are available to purchase and install the stoves.

The ONIL and Patsari stoves and other improved cooking stove projects are seeking to qualify for carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which awards credits to projects in developing countries that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The carbon credits can then be purchased by polluters in developed countries in order to offset their own emissions and meet their commitments to cut emissions under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Each ONIL stove is estimated to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by nearly three tons a year, while the estimate for the Patsari stove is between three and five tons a year. Although Professor Ortiz acknowledged that the proliferation of improved cook stoves could fuel firewood consumption, he said that combined with reforestation efforts, they are a better option than the introduction of electric stoves in rural areas.

Several improved biomass stoves have won Britain-based Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy, known globally as the “green Oscars”: the HELPS International ONIL stove, developed by Don O’Neal, in 2004; GIRA’s Patsari stove in 2006; and the Aprovecho Research Centre’s portable fuel-efficient stove in 2009.

Source – http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50484

Smoke from home fuels tied to emphysema

February 25, 2010 · 0 comments

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – People who burn wood or other “biofuels” for heat or cooking may have a heightened risk of emphysema and related lung conditions, a new study suggests.

In an analysis of 15 international studies, researchers found that people exposed to smoke from “biomass” fuels in their homes generally had a greater risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) than those who used other sources for cooking and heating.

Biomass refers to biological materials that can be burned for energy, including wood, crops and animal dung. They are major sources of energy in the developing world, and are thought to be used for cooking and heating in half of homes worldwide.

Cigarette smoking is the primary risk factor for COPD, a group of serious lung diseases that includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. But the role, if any, for smoke from wood and other forms of biomass has been unclear.

These latest findings strengthen the evidence that exposure to biomass smoke is a risk factor for COPD, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Pixin Ran of Guangzhou Medical University in Guangzhou, China.

For the study, published in the journal Chest, Ran’s team combined the results of 15 studies from Asia, South America, Mexico and Spain involving a total of 3,719 adults with COPD and nearly 39,000 healthy men and women.

The studies compared COPD patients with healthy individuals, surveying them about, among other things, their past exposure to biomass smoke at home. Such studies cannot prove cause-and-effect, but can only show whether there is a relationship between the variables being measured — in this case, biomass smoke exposure and COPD risk.

Across the studies, the researchers found, participants who reported exposure to biomass smoke at home were more than twice as likely to have COPD as those with no such exposure. The risks were similar in men and women and across geographical regions.

Biomass smoke also seemed to affect COPD risk independent of cigarette smoking, possibly exacerbating the ill effects of cigarettes. Among non-smokers, Ran’s team found, exposure to biomass smoke was linked to a 2.5-fold increase in the risk of COPD. Smokers exposed to biomass smoke, meanwhile, had a more than four-fold greater risk of COPD than non-smokers who did not burn biomass fuels at home.

Given the widespread use of biomass fuels, particularly in rural areas of developing countries, Ran’s team writes, “the public health consequences of biomass smoke with regard to COPD (are) important.”

The findings suggest that efforts to reduce people’s exposure to such smoke might help prevent some cases of the lung diseases, the researchers conclude.  Chest, online February 5, 2010.

Source – http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61O4XF20100225

GLOBAL Solar Ovens Provided by Sun Ovens International

February 25, 2010 · 1 comment

Sun Ovens International offers a range of solar ovens that include the GLOBAL and VILLAGER brands. The GLOBAL sun oven has a rugged design and total weight of 9.5 kilograms. This oven cooks the food using the energy obtained from the sun and is suitable for meeting about 70 per cent of the demands of a family of six to eight people. The GLOBAL sun oven has the capability to boil, steam, roast as well as bake the food at normal cooking temperatures of 182 degree centigrade.

GLOBAL sun oven

The solar oven from Sun Ovens International comprises different components that include an inbuilt thermometer, a spill-proof levelator, collapsible reflectors, a self contained leveling leg and a Granite ware three quart cooking pot. The reflectors of the oven can be removed as and when required, facilitating easy transportation and storage. The usage of the GLOBAL sun oven minimizes the dependence on fossil fuels such as dung, charcoal and wood. The materials used for designing this solar oven from Sun Ovens International have been carefully selected, keeping in mind their ability to work under high temperatures as well as retain a maximum amount of heat within the oven.

The GLOBAL solar oven cooks food at a higher temperature when compared to other solar cooking devices. This cost effective cooking device is known for its durability and capability to cook food even when there in minimal sunlight.

Source: http://www.sunoven.com

Pakistan – Smoke-free stoves for village women

February 25, 2010 · 0 comments

PAKISTAN: Smoke-free Stoves A Godsend for Village Women, by Zofeen Ebrahim

THATTA, Pakistan, Feb 25 (IPS) – Forty-something and unlettered, Sona Siddiqi never imagined she would become the most sought-after woman in her village of Ramzan Katiar.

Here in the Union Council Gharo of Thatta district in Sindh province, some 125 kilometres from the southern port city of Karachi, Siddiqi is happily making a living by building earthenware stoves for the villagers.

No ordinary stoves, these are godsend for rural women. The low-cost elongated stoves with two cells help save precious fuel wood in an area already stripped of trees. They are also a boon to women such as Rozan Nazar, who no longer have to walk five km, at times more, every day to collect firewood.

Octogenarian Fatema Hasan recalled that there once was a jungle around her village. “We didn’t have to walk that far. But today these women have to walk such distances because we cut down trees and did not plant any to replace them,” said Hasan.

On the average, a woman would be spending 15 hours a week collecting wood. “It used to take me between two and three hours just to collect wood which is good for a day, sometimes two,” said Nazar. “You can’t imagine how much of a relief this is. My life has eased so much.”

The other women nod in agreement. They spend the extra time they get doing embroidery, chatting with each other. “I love that! We never had time to do that earlier!” Nazar exclaimed.

Siddiqi is enjoying being in the limelight for her stoves: “I didn’t know I could be good at anything.”

She first learnt about the energy-efficient, smokeless stoves through a team from the non-government Indus Development Forum (IDF) that came to their village to do a demonstration. “I volunteered to construct one after they demolished their sample,” narrated Siddiqi.

This was nine months ago. She has so far constructed 16 stoves, and for every stove she receives 50 Pakistani rupees (58 U.S. cents) from the forum.

It takes her half a day to build a stove, including digging up the soil, mixing it with other materials and then installing the stove. “It takes three days for it to be completely dry,” she said.

Each stove uses about 15 kilogrammes of soil mixed with rice husk, wheat straw and donkey excreta. “It has to be donkey dung, not buffalo, because the latter burns and is not strong enough to sustain heat,” said Javed Shah, the man who invented the smokeless stove.

“It’s not rocket science, really,” said Shah, a technical adviser with the Aga Khan Planning and Building Services (AKPBS), a non-government organisation that works for the improved living conditions of communities.

Apart from soil, making the smokeless stoves also involves using the wooden template that is provided by the IDF, two empty tin canisters, a small plastic tub, an empty plastic litre-size soda bottle and a clay pipe that acts as a chimney.

“Training people, especially women, was part of the project,” said Hameed Sabzoi, IDF director.

The project was sponsored by the small grants programme of the Global Environment Facility of the United Nations Development . Under the one-year project from December 2008 to 2009, IDF had pledged to install 1,000 stoves in 15 villages in Gharo. The union council has a population of about 18,000 to 20,000 and comprises 35 villages with 50 or more households each.

The organisation at first wanted to charge 50 rupees for the installation of each stove, but soon realised that the poor villagers could not pay even the small amount. “We then decided to provide the stoves for free,” said IDF’s Sabzoi.

Shah first came up with the idea of energy-efficient metal stoves for the northern areas of Pakistan in 1985. “Conditions like asthma and eye infections among women and children were phenomenal in that area,” he said. “We realised it was due to smoke and soot.”

Biomass fuel – wood, crop residues and animal dung – is used in four-fifths of households in Pakistan and is a major source of indoor air pollution when burnt for cooking, for providing heat and lighting up homes, according to Sabzoi.

In 1987, while working in the villages of Sindh’s coastal area, Shah realised that women were facing similar health problems there. “But the weather did not permit the use of metal stoves. It would get very hot in these villages in summer,” he said.

So, Shah came up with stoves that used local soil.

“We succeeded in installing some 890 stoves (in the 15 villages in Gharo),” said Sabzoi.

Noor Khatoon, a 40 year-old mother of four, said she preferred the new stove: “It takes less time for the food to get cooked than in the traditional one.”

Her cousin Dhaniani will get a smoke-free stove after the family finishes reconstructing their home, which was flooded during heavy rains last year. When she tried cooking on Khatoon’s stove, she found that it took almost half the usual time and used very little wood.

The food was tastier too, specially the roti, Khatoon added. “That’s because the heat is evenly distributed all around the pan, unlike in the traditional one,” she explained.

Some residents have added further innovations in their stoves. A copper coil connected to the side of the combustion chamber and connected to a barrel of water warms the water so it can be used for bathing especially during winter, said Sabzoi.

Roma Juma, 37, was using the energy-efficient stove long before the IDF team came to her village in Mohammad Hashim Katchi Mundro. She has warm water available all the time. The seamstress now takes orders and builds stoves for her neighbours.

“I did it for free in the beginning, but when more and more women started coming with similar requests, I decided to charge them,” said Juma. She charges 100 rupees (1.17 dollars) for her labour and has so far built about 150 stoves.

Her relatives in Karachi have asked her to build them some too. “They say their gas and electricity bills have skyrocketed, and they want me to go there and install the stoves for them,” she chuckled.

An evaluation by the Aga Khan services in 2005, called the smoke-free stoves a “runaway bestseller” that has helped reduce wood use by 40 to 45 percent.

Masood Mahesar, a development worker and former provincial manager at AKPBS-Pakistan, said more than 10,000 stoves have been installed in Sindh’s Thatta, Badin, Hyderabad and Matiari districts. “A few thousand have also been replicated by the communities themselves,” he told IPS.

But this is a drop in the ocean in a region of 50,000 villages. Thousands remain unaware of the stove and either cut trees or pay 250 rupees (nearly 3 dollars) for 40 kilos of expensive fuel wood.

Source – http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50458

2010 Sasakawa Prize to stoves program in Latin America

February 23, 2010 · 1 comment

2009-10 Sasakawa Prize winners bring light and heat to communities in Latin America, Africa and India

Bali (Indonesia), 23 February 2010 – Two projects bringing green stoves and clean lighting to remote communities in Latin America, East Africa and India are the laureates of the 2009-10 UNEP Sasakawa Prize, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today.

This year’s winners are Nuru Design, a company bringing rechargeable lights to villages in Rwanda, Kenya and India; and Trees, Water and People (TWP), an organization that collaborates with local NGOs to distribute fuel-efficient cook stoves to communities in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Haiti.

The UNEP Sasakawa Prize, worth $200,000, is given out each year to sustainable and replicable grassroots projects around the planet. The winners will receive their prestigious Prize at an Award Ceremony in Bali attended by dozens of Environment Ministers during the 11th Special Session of the UNEP Governing Council.

In a year that saw global leaders meet in Copenhagen for the crucial climate conference, the 2009 theme for the Prize is ‘Green Solutions to Combat Climate Change’. The winners, who were selected by a panel of four people including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and UN Messenger of Peace Wangari Maathai, will receive $100,000 each in order to expand and develop their grassroots projects.

Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director and UN Under-Secretary-General who chaired the Jury Panel, said: “Combating climate change is not just up to governments: it starts at the grassroots level, as communities tap into the power of renewables and sustainable technologies. Through pioneering green ovens and sustainable lighting, Nuru Design and Trees, Water and People are changing the lives of thousands of schoolchildren, housewives and villagers across Latin America, Africa and India. This is the Green Economy of tomorrow, in action today.”

The two projects are both helping to improve daily lives in far-flung, non-electrified villages while helping to fight climate change.

Nuru Design has already converted thousands of households to rechargeable lights, and aims to prevent the emission of around 40,000 tonnes of CO2 from kerosene lighting in 2010.

And through fuel-efficient cooking stoves that burn 50 to 70 per cent less wood, TWP is helping households save money and preventing nearly 250,000 tonnes of hazardous emissions.

The winners  

Nuru Design

Lack of reliable energy and lighting affects over two billion people in the developing world and remains a primary obstacle to improving health, increasing literacy and education, and, ultimately, reducing poverty and hunger. Meanwhile, the equivalent of 260 million tonnes of CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere yearly from burning kerosene and firewood, which millions of people around the world rely on for lighting.

With seed-funding from the World Bank Lighting Africa initiative, Nuru Design UK co-developed and field-tested the Nuru lighting system with villagers and local partners in Rwanda – UNDP Rwanda and Millennium Villages. Nuru means “light” in Swahili, and the system consists of portable, inexpensive rechargeable LED lights that sell for $5.

Nuru lights can be recharged by solar panel or AC charger, but the primary recharging source is human power using the world’s first commercially available, locally-assembled, pedal generator: the Nuru POWERCycle. Gentle pedalling for 20 minutes using feet or hands, bicycle-style, can fully recharge up to five Nuru lights – each one lasting up to 37 hours. The lights give up to two weeks of bright light on a full recharge, allowing children to study, home-based businesses to operate, and households to function after dark.

The project has been a runaway success, making a significant, immediate and long-lasting environmental impact. In Rwanda alone, Nuru is adding 40 entrepreneurs every quarter, meaning 10,000 households every quarter will switch from kerosene to Nuru light.

Nuru Design plans to use the Sasakawa funding to scale up in Rwanda and to replicate their work in Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and India – expanding to 800 entrepreneurs who will deliver lighting to about 200,000 households.

Trees, Water and People

Nearly half the world’s 6.8 billion people rely on smoky open fires to cook their daily meals. This traditional practice causes deadly indoor air pollution which kills 1.6 million women and children annually.

Trees, Water & People (TWP) , a non-profit organization, collaborates with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Haiti to distribute fuel-efficient cook stoves that burn 50 to 70 per cent less wood and remove toxic smoke from homes. Other projects include community tree nurseries, reforestation, protecting watersheds and the promotion of renewable energy.

To date, TWP has coordinated the building of 35,000 stoves throughout Central America and Haiti, benefitting more than 175,000 people. The ecostoves burn 70 per cent less wood than traditional ovens, saving families $1 to $5 per day.

They also decrease harmful carbon emissions by 1 tonne of CO2 equivalent per year per stove for domestic users and 3.5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year for commercial users, like tortilla makers.

To supplement the fuel-efficient stoves project, TWP has helped villages create 16 community-run tree nurseries that sequester carbon and counter the effects of deforestation. To date, three million trees have been planted throughout Latin America.

TWP will use the Prize money to support and expand the fuel-efficient stove projects and community tree nurseries throughout Central America and the Caribbean, purchasing equipment and materials necessary for increased stove production, as well as vehicles for transportation and delivery.

Notes to Editors:  

About the UNEP Sasakawa Prize

The UNEP Sasakawa Prize is sponsored by the Japan-based Nippon Foundation, an independent, non-profit grant-making organization that supports both Japanese and international philantropic projects. The UNEP Sasakawa Prize was originally created in 1982 by the late Ryoichi Sasakawa. The Prize was re-launched in its current format in 2005, and is currently chaired by Mr. Sasakawa’s son, Yohei Sasakawa.

The four members of the 2009-10 UNEP Sasakawa Prize jury are Jury Chairman and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and UN Messenger of Peace Pr. Wangari Maathai, Nobel chemistry Laureate and 1999 Sasakawa Winner Pr. Mario Molina, and Ms Wakako Hironaka, Member of Japan’s House of Councillors.

At the UNEP Sasakawa Award Ceremony on 23 February, last year’s Sasakawa Winners – Sunlabob Rural Energy and Practical Action – will deliver a report on their progress since they were awarded the Prize.

Winners’ Biographies:  

Nuru Design – Sameer Hajee

Prior to Nuru Design, Sameer Hajee was the Global Business Development manager at Freeplay Energy plc, the developers of the world’s first hand-crank radio and flashlight. At Freeplay, Sameer created the international aid and development sales team which in 2006 and 2007 generated $6 million in revenue. He also co-created and co-managed a Development Marketplace project that saw the creation of 50 rural energy enterprises in Rwanda.

In 2005, Sameer launched and managed the Growing Sustainable Business (GSB) initiative at UNDP in Kenya, where he helped domestic and multinational companies, such as SC Johnson, Tetra Pak and Microsoft, to develop and implement pro-poor business models in Kenya.

Trees, Water and People – Stuart Conway

After graduating from Colorado State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Forest Management, Stuart Conway served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala for three years, where he introduced reforestation, agroforestry, soil conservation, and stove building techniques into nearby villages. Upon returning to the States, Stuart received his Master’s degree in International Development and Agroforestry from Cornell University. He then served as Director for the New Forests Project at the International Center in Washington D.C., where he guided the program to plant over 2 million trees annually, establish agroforestry training centers in Guatemala and El Salvador, and initiated community reforestation projects throughout Central America.

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