Cost/benefit analysis of biomass energy supply options – Tanzania

July 23, 2009 · 0 comments

W.T. Wiskerke, V. Dornburg, C.D.K. Rubanza, R.E. Malimbwi, A.P.C. Faaij,

Cost/benefit analysis of biomass energy supply options for rural smallholders in semi-arid East Shinyanga Region in Tanzania, IN: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 30 June 2009, ISSN 1364-0321, DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2009.06.001.

This study analyzes the economic feasibility of sustainable smallholder bio-energy production under semi-arid conditions. The eastern part of Shinyanga region in Tanzania was chosen as a case study area. Three different sustainable biomass energy supply systems were compared by means of cost/benefit analysis: a small-scale forestation project for carbon sequestration, a short rotation woodlot and a Jatropha plantation, thereby using the produced Jatropha oil as a substitute for fuelwood or diesel. Rotational woodlots are most profitable with a Net Present Value of up to US$2007 1165/ha, a return on labour of up to US$2007 6.69/man-day and a fuelwood production cost of US$2007 0.53/GJ, compared to a local market price of US$2007 1.95/GJ. With a production cost of US$2007 19.60/GJ, Jatropha oil is too expensive to be used as an alternative for fuelwood. Instead it can be utilized economically as a diesel substitute, at an observed diesel cost of US$2007 1.49/l. The mean annual biomass increment (MAI) in semi-arid East Shinyanga is too low to collect sufficient benefits from trading forestation carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to cover the costs of forestation and forest management.

An Intervention to Reduce Kerosene-Related Burns and Poisonings in South Africa

July 23, 2009 · 0 comments

David C. Schwebel, Dehran Swart, Jennifer Simpson, Siu-kuen Azor Hui, Phumla Hobe,

An Intervention to Reduce Kerosene-Related Burns and Poisonings in Low-Income South African Communities, IN: Health Psychology, Volume 28, Issue 4, July 2009, Pages 493-500, ISSN 0278-6133, DOI: 10.1037/a0014531.

Objective: Unintentional injury rates in low- and middle-income countries are up to 50 times higher than high-income nations. In South Africa, kerosene (paraffin) is a leading cause of poisoning and burns, particularly in low-income communities where it serves as a primary fuel for light, cooking, and heating. This study tested a community-based intervention to reduce kerosene-related injury risk. The intervention used a train-the-trainers model, whereby expert trainers train local paraprofessionals, who in turn deliver educational materials to community residents. The intervention was theory-driven, pragmatically motivated, and culturally sensitive.

Design: Prospective quasi-experimental intervention design with nonequivalent case versus control groups. Main

Outcome Measures: Three primary outcome measures were considered: self-reported knowledge of kerosene safety, observed practice of safe kerosene use, and self-reported recognition of risk for kerosene-related injury.

Results: ANOVA models suggest a large and significant increase in self-reported kerosene-related knowledge in the intervention community compared to the control community. There were smaller, but statistically significant changes, in kerosene-related safety practices and recognition of kerosene injury risk in the intervention community compared to the control community.

Conclusion: The intervention was successful. A train-the-trainers model might be an effective educational tool to reduce kerosene-related injury risk in low-income communities within low- and middle-income countries.

GIS-based methodology for highlighting fuelwood supply/demand imbalances

July 23, 2009 · 0 comments

Adrian Ghilardi, Gabriela Guerrero, Omar Masera,

A GIS-based methodology for highlighting fuelwood supply/demand imbalances at the local level: A case study for Central Mexico, IN: Biomass and Bioenergy, Volume 33, Issues 6-7, June-July 2009, Pages 957-972, ISSN 0961-9534, DOI: 10.1016/j.biombioe.2009.02.005.

When fuelwood is harvested at a rate exceeding natural growth and inefficient conversion technologies are used, negative environmental and socio-economic impacts, such as fuelwood shortages, natural forests degradation and net GHG emissions arise. In this study, we argue that analyzing fuelwood supply/demand spatial patterns require multi-scale approaches to effectively bridge the gap between national results with local situations. The proposed methodology is expected to help 1) focusing resources and actions on local critical situations, starting from national wide analyses and 2) estimating, within statistically robust confidence bounds, the proportion of non-renewable harvested fuelwood. Starting from a previous work, we selected a county-based fuelwood hot spot in the Central Highlands of Mexico, identified from a national wide assessment, and developed a grid-based model in order to identify single localities that face concomitant conditions of high fuelwood consumption and insufficient fuelwood resources. By means of a multi-criteria analysis (MCA), twenty localities, out of a total of 90, were identified as critical in terms of six indicators related to fuelwood use and availability of fuelwood resources. Fuelwood supply/demand balances varied among localities from -16.2 +/- 2.5 Gg y-1 to 4.4 +/- 2.6 Gg y-1, while fractions of non-renewable fuelwood varied from 0 to 96%. These results support the idea that balances and non-renewable fuelwood fractions (mandatory inputs for Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) cookstoves projects) must be calculated on a locality by locality basis if gross under or over-estimations want to be avoided in the final carbon accounting.

Promises and Pitfalls of Commercializing Improved Cookstoves

July 23, 2009 · 0 comments

Rob Bailis, Amanda Cowan, Victor Berrueta, Omar Masera,

Arresting the Killer in the Kitchen: The Promises and Pitfalls of Commercializing Improved Cookstoves, IN : World Development, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 9 July 2009, ISSN 0305-750X, DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2009.03.004.

In a shift exemplary of neoliberal approaches to development, major funders of household energy interventions have begun to emphasize market-based stove dissemination over partially subsidized models. Stove promoters are increasingly expected to operate as self-sustaining businesses. This shift is viewed as a way to ‘scale-up’ in order to reach millions of poor households lacking access to clean cooking technologies. Using the case of GIRA, an NGO that has successfully distributed cookstoves in Mexico’s Central Highlands for nearly two decades, we demonstrate how this trend presents challenges for organizations operating effectively with outside funding in highly contextual local conditions.

SCORE stove update

July 23, 2009 · 0 comments

Researchers test low-cost generator to bring electricity to poor communities

As electricity supply in the country grows from epileptic to ‘dead’ with the attendant regular use of generating sets and daily burning of fuel and diesel worth thousands of naira, British researchers claim they have developed a low-cost (less than N5000- $20- per household), high efficiency generator that weighs between 10 and 20 kilogram, and generates an hour’s use per kilogram of fuel- which could be wood, dung or any other locally available biomass material.

The low-cost generator with the potential to transform lives in the world’s poorest communities is now being tested across the United Kingdom and in Nepal. The Stove for Cooking, Refrigeration and Electricity (SCORE) project, led by the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, is developing a bio-mass burning cooking stove which also converts heat into acoustic energy and then into electricity, all in one unit.

The SCORE Project had in 2007 developed a new device, which offers the hope of reliable refrigeration, heat for cooking, and electricity for developing nations, all in one thermoacoustic device.

The effort is part of the $4 million SCORE project aimed at finding more efficient and safe ways of utilizing biomass fuels such as wood. The University of Nottingham, University of Manchester, Imperial College London, and Queen Mary, University of London are the primary partners in the project, along with the Los Alamos Laboratories.

The latest SCORE Project invention is an upgraded version of the 2007 model. The Project brings together experts from across the world to develop the biomass-powered generator. By developing an affordable, versatile domestic appliance Score aims to address the energy needs of rural communities in Africa and Asia, where access to power is extremely limited.

In a five-year project that started in 2007 the revolutionary device SCORE is being developed. It is an all-in-one solution that is based on biomass and thermo-acoustic techniques that is used for heating, for cooling and for generating electricity. The hope is that it will improve environment, health and quality of life on the world’s poorest communities.

The consortium’s 2007 device is based on thermoacoustic technology that has been under active development at Los Alamos Laboratories. Essentially, the device is a Stirling engine.

A wood-burning furnace is attached to a pipe that is shaped rather like a pulse jet engine. The heat from the stove drives a resonant wave in the tube, which also sucks heat out of the air at the other end. Hence, the stove has the ability to provide heat at one end of the tube and refrigeration at the other end. To generate electricity, a membrane is placed in the tube, which vibrates back and forth with the resonating gas; the project describes it as a “reverse loudspeaker.” This can then be used to generate electricity.

Researchers in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at The University of Nottingham are working on the generator’s Linear Alternator – the part, which turns the sound energy into electricity. The system uses special configurations of magnets, which generate electrical energy from sound. Computer simulations of the linear alternator have proved successful, and test models are currently being constructed in the department’s workshops.

Nottingham researchers are working with Dai-ichi, one of Malaysia’s largest loudspeaker manufacturers, to bring down production costs through good design practice. Though the Score unit does not physically resemble the average loudspeaker, it is compatible with the Dai-ichi manufacturing process.

Score has been invited by Dai-ichi to exhibit at the “Better City Better Life” EXPO 2010 in Shanghai China from May to October 2010 to showcase its new advanced technology to 70 million expected visitors.

The aim of the Score project is to make a low-cost, high efficiency generator that can be used in the world’s poorest countries.

The generator has a cost target of £20 per household, based on the production of a million units. The generator will weigh between 10 and 20kg. The target is to generate an hour’s use per kilogram of fuel – which could be wood, dung or any other locally-available biomass material.

Dr Chitta Saha, Research Assistant at Nottingham said: “The current Linear Alternator design is very exciting for me as it solves many of the problems we had with using loudspeakers as alternators, but can still be made cheaply. My mum lives in Bangladesh – she is so proud that I am working on such a worthwhile project that she can see will help her community.”

The University of Manchester, City University London and Queen Mary, University of London and the Charity Practical Action, United Kingdom, are partners in the project – from researching engine design to the manufacture and distribution of the stove in the developing world.

The project will work with governments, universities and civil organisation across Africa and Asia, many of whom have already offered support. This collaboration will ensure the device is affordable, socially acceptable and that there is scope for communities to develop businesses to manufacture and repair locally.

Mark Johnson, Professor of Advanced Power Conversion at Nottingham, said: “I am particularly pleased with the way that the Score consortium, with partners from very different technical backgrounds, has developed into a cohesive research team. We now have solutions to the fundamental technical problems and the first demonstrators delivering significant electrical power, have been realised”

The Score team is now looking for sponsorship to fund testing in the countries in which the generator will eventually be deployed. Indeed Germany’s Department of International Development (GTZ South Africa) has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding to provide funding to test the stove in southern Africa.

Paul H Riley, Score Project Director says “We have had tremendous interest in the Score project from around the world and the Score community -launched a few months ago – is working extremely well. This includes entrepreneurs and volunteers that adapt the stove for local use among its members.”

Practical Action, a charity which promotes the development of sustainable technology to tackle poverty in developing countries, is already leading field trials in Nepal and Kenya. The charity will expand the test sites when more units are made available.

Score community member Mark Loweth works in Tajikistan, one of the poorer countries in Central Asia. He has adapted a variation of a Score Stove to ensure it is suitable for the communities it is aimed at.

“We are very excited with the Score technology as it has the capability of bringing small scale electrical generation to households in the developing world,” he said.

“We plan to field test 20 units in Tajikistan when funding is available through a jointly owned, locally registered company utilising the experience and extensive local knowledge of expatriates and nationals with strong links to rural communities.”

Other members of the international Score Community are investigating how a Score Stove could best be adapted for their local environments.

South African Score community member Rynier Ferreira said: “We are adapting a Score Stove to work with paraffin (kerosene) as many rural communities in South Africa are still highly dependant on it as a major fuel source for cooking. Adapting a Score Stove for paraffin will increase not only the safety aspect for stoves using this type of fuel, but will give the people in these rural communities the additional advantage of electricity and refrigeration.”

Gorge Crowson is also testing the stove in southern Africa after joining the Score community: He said: “We have identified a number of waste materials that can be burnt in a Score Stove and are actively seeking financial support to set up assembly plants in Southern Africa and a distribution network, once the test phase is completed.”

It is thought that more units will be available for testing in field trials at the start of next year, with full production of the Score generator taking place after 2012.

The Score consortium is funded by grants from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council as part of its initiative on energy and international development.

Kees deBlok of Aster Thermoakoestische Systemen in the Netherlands and Scott Backhaus of Los Alamos International Laboratories are acting as consultants to the Score project.

Source

Uganda – Biomass briquettes replace firewood

July 23, 2009 · 6 comments

iap-ugandaNECESSITY is the mother of invention, the saying goes. This certainly applies to Abasi Kazibwe Musisi. An investor in Nateete on Masaka Road, Musisi has overcome choking energy bills by turning waste into fuel.

After a decade of research and consultation with Dr. Moses Musaazi of Makerere University’s faculty of technology, Musisi has come to love waste because he knows it can be turned into briquettes.

Although his small-scale factory, Kampala Jellitone Suppliers, is better known for producing roasted coffee, popularly known as Nguvu, Musisi has come up with a new product for cooking that has triple advantages. His technology helps to turn waste into wealth, saves money and provides an alternative for charcoal and firewood.

“This has helped me to reduce the energy cost by half,” says Musisi. “The briquettes are also cleaner. The technology reduces the felling of trees for charcoal. While environmentalists have been discussing the dangers of rampant tree cutting, I have come up with a practical solution.”

Previously, his company was relying on gas. But after having adopted the new technology, Shell had to come and collect their gas cylinders.

“I tried out all kinds of energy sources – electricity, waste oil and charcoal, but gas was cheaper,” says Musisi. That was until he discovered bio-mass. “The briquettes are the cheapest form of energy. They will help many enterprises save money and thrive.”

Awarded
Musisi won international accolades for his innovation. Last month, in London, he received the Ashden Award and a cheque for 20,000 pounds from Prince Charles of Wales.

He intends to use the money to invest in new technology that should double his production of briquettes in the next two years.

Kampala Jellitone Suppliers is currently producing 130 tonnes of briquettes per month. It supplies Nakawa and Kyambogo universities as well as Mary Stuart Hall at Makerere University.

He is also making arrangements to sell his briquettes to Mukono Christian University.

In addition, his company supplies about 30 other institutions including schools, hospitals and restaurants.

“The briquettes are likely to make real business because the biggest challenge for many urban residents, institutions and enterprises is the skyrocketing cost of energy,” he says.

His initiative is the first of its kind. The waste is compressed and compacted, as a result less energy gets lost.

“The briquettes we make at Nateete provide more energy than the charcoal briquettes commonly available on the market,” he explains.

About 70% of the energy is lost during conversion into charcoal briquettes. “What people utilise in the charcoal briquettes is only 30% of the original total biomass energy. With the Nateete briquettes, the energy is kept intact.”

Sources of waste
Musisi turns several kinds of waste into fuel. The ‘raw materials’ for his factory include residues of rice, coffee husks, empty groundnut shells and saw dust.

“We have been collecting huge piles of waste from across the country,” he explains. He gets his raw materials free of charge because most farmers are happy to get rid of their waste.

Iganga and Hoima districts are his main suppliers. Farmers and dealers in agricultural products in those areas tend to set fire to the residues of rice or coffee because they have no use for them.

To them, it is a way of removing the waste which has been a burden. But to Musisi, the waste is a source of unlimited wealth. His production of briquettes, which is earning him sh42m a month, is now rivaling his coffee business.

Energy efficient stoves
However, Musisi’s briquettes need a special, energy efficient stove. Because the briquettes release a lot of energy, there is need to create space between the saucepan and the briquettes to allow for ample combustion.

“Once there is ample space to allow in air for combustion, you will not see smoke and a lot of energy will be released for cooking,” Musisi says.

He is currently working on his own, affordable type of domestic stove which, once tested and cleared, he wants to put on the market together with his briquettes.

“The stove needs to be made of strong metal and lined with concrete material between the metallic bodies in order to withstand the enormous amount of heat,” he explains.

Contrary to traditional stoves, Musisi’s stove will not require to remove the saucepan to put in briquettes. It will have a slot where the briquettes are pushed into.

Musisi’s story shows that it is possible to make money and protect the environment at the same time.

It also shows that innovative ideas and determination can change the world and contribute to reducing global warming.

“The major value of these awards is that they demonstrate what is possible, not only for small scale projects, but what is achievable for the whole world,” said Prince Charles of Wales, speaking at the Ashden Awards ceremony on June 11.

Source, July 22, 2009 – http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/220/688860

Fuel-efficient stoves in Darfur

July 20, 2009 · 0 comments

Samer Abdelnour, Oana Branzei, Fuel-efficient stoves for Darfur:

The social construction of subsistence marketplaces in post-conflict settings, IN: Journal of Business Research, Available online 14 July 2009, ISSN 0148-2963, DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2009.04.027.

This paper explores the development of market roles and transactions in fuel-efficient stoves in Darfur from 1997 to 2008 as a grounded example of how subsistence markets are socially constructed in post-conflict settings. Using a combination of archival texts, interviews, and real-time discourses by protagonists, this study explains the who, what, why and how of emergent marketplaces by showing how development interventions come to imbue market participants and transactions with socially (re)constructed meanings. The fitful emergence of subsistence marketplaces for fuel-efficient in Darfur is punctuated by development interventions which at times under- or misrepresent market participants and by successes and failures in bringing together trainers, producers, sellers, consumers and users of fuel-efficient stoves. Subsidies and handouts delay and distort the emergence of grassroots demand, choices, and prices; a plurality of competing development interventions re-shape the supply. By the end of 2008, the subsistence market for fuel-efficient stoves catches momentum, engaging over 52% of the Darfuri communities in market transactions for the product. As market participants gain voice and influence they reshape the market to favour mud stoves over metal stoves. Reports by several development organizations suggest that among fuel-efficient stove users, 90% use mud models, and 49% of women who own both mud and metal stoves prefer mud stoves.

Air Pollution in Womb Linked to Low IQ

July 20, 2009 · 0 comments

(AP) Researchers for the first time have linked air pollution exposure before birth with lower IQ scores in childhood, bolstering evidence that smog may harm the developing brain.

The results are in a study of 249 children of New York City women who wore backpack air monitors for 48 hours during the last few months of pregnancy. They lived in mostly low-income neighborhoods in northern Manhattan and the South Bronx. They had varying levels of exposure to typical kinds of urban air pollution, mostly from car, bus and truck exhaust.

At age 5, before starting school, the children were given IQ tests. Those exposed to the most pollution before birth scored on average four to five points lower than children with less exposure.

That’s a big enough difference that it could affect children’s performance in school, said Frederica Perera, the study’s lead author and director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health.

Dr. Michael Msall, a University of Chicago pediatrician not involved in the research, said the study doesn’t mean that children living in congested cities “aren’t going to learn to read and write and spell.”

But it does suggest that you don’t have to live right next door to a belching factory to face pollution health risks, and that there may be more dangers from typical urban air pollution than previously thought, he said.

“We are learning more and more about low-dose exposure and how things we take for granted may not be a free ride,” he said.

While future research is needed to confirm the new results, the findings suggest exposure to air pollution before birth could have the same harmful effects on the developing brain as exposure to lead, said Patrick Breysse, an environmental health specialist at Johns Hopkins’ school of public health.

And along with other environmental harms and disadvantages low-income children are exposed to, it could help explain why they often do worse academically than children from wealthier families, Breysse said.

“It’s a profound observation,” he said. “This paper is going to open a lot of eyes.”

The study in the August edition of Pediatrics was released Monday.

In earlier research, involving some of the same children and others, Perera linked prenatal exposure to air pollution with genetic abnormalities at birth that could increase risks for cancer; smaller newborn head size and reduced birth weight. Her research team also has linked it with developmental delays at age 3 and with children’s asthma.

The researchers studied pollutants that can cross the placenta and are known scientifically as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Main sources include vehicle exhaust and factory emissions. Tobacco smoke is another source, but mothers in the study were nonsmokers.

A total of 140 study children, 56 percent, were in the high exposure group. That means their mothers likely lived close to heavily congested streets, bus depots and other typical sources of city air pollution; the researchers are still examining data to confirm that, Perera said. The mothers were black or Dominican-American; the results likely apply to other groups, researchers said.

The researchers took into account other factors that could influence IQ, including secondhand smoke exposure, the home learning environment and air pollution exposure after birth, and still found a strong influence from prenatal exposure, Perera said.

Dr. Robert Geller, an Emory University pediatrician and toxicologist, said the study can’t completely rule out that pollution exposure during early childhood might have contributed. He also noted fewer mothers in the high exposure group had graduated from high school. While that might also have contributed to the high-dose children’s lower IQ scores, the study still provides compelling evidence implicating prenatal pollution exposure that should prompt additional studies, Geller said.

The researchers said they plan to continuing monitoring and testing the children to learn whether school performance is affected and if there are any additional long-term effects.

Source – CBS News

Nepal – Cooking with sound: Score stove enters test stage

July 17, 2009 · 0 comments

Cooking with sound — Score stove enters test stage

July 17th, 2009 A low-cost generator with the potential to transform lives in the world’s poorest communities is now being tested across the UK and in Nepal. The Score project, led by The University of Nottingham, is developing a bio-mass burning cooking stove which also converts heat into acoustic energy and then into electricity, all in one unit.

The £2 million Score project (Stove for Cooking, Refrigeration and Electricity) brings together experts from across the world to develop the biomass-powered generator. By developing an affordable, versatile domestic appliance Score aims to address the energy needs of rural communities in Africa and Asia, where access to power is extremely limited.

Researchers in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at The University of Nottingham are working on the generator’s Linear Alternator — the part which turns the sound energy into electricity. The system uses special configurations of magnets which generate electrical energy from sound. Computer simulations of the linear alternator have proved successful, and test models are currently being constructed in the department’s workshops.

Nottingham researchers are working with Dai-ichi, one of Malaysia’s largest loudspeaker manufacturers, to bring down production costs through good design practice. Though the Score unit does not physically resemble the average loudspeaker, it is compatible with the Dai-ichi manufacturing process.

Score has been invited by Dai-ichi to exhibit at the “Better City Better Life” EXPO 2010 in Shanghai China from May to October 2010 to showcase its new advanced technology to 70 million expected visitors.

The aim of the Score project is to make a low-cost, high efficiency generator that can be used in the world’s poorest countries. The generator has a cost target of £20 per household, based on the production of a million units. The generator will weigh between 10 and 20kg. The target is to generate an hour’s use per kilogram of fuel — which could be wood, dung or any other locally-available biomass material.

Dr Chitta Saha, Research Assistant at Nottingham said: “The current Linear Alternator design is very exciting for me as it solves many of the problems we had with using loudspeakers as alternators, but can still be made cheaply. My mum lives in Bangladesh — she is so proud that I am working on such a worthwhile project that she can see will help her community.”

The University of Manchester, City University London and Queen Mary, University of London and the Charity Practical Action are partners in the project — from researching engine design to the manufacture and distribution of the stove in the developing world. The project will work with governments, universities and civil organisation across Africa and Asia, many of whom have already offered support. This collaboration will ensure the device is affordable, socially acceptable and that there is scope for communities to develop businesses to manufacture and repair locally.

Mark Johnson, Professor of Advanced Power Conversion at Nottingham, said: “I am particularly pleased with the way that the Score consortium, with partners from very different technical backgrounds, has developed into a cohesive research team. We now have solutions to the fundamental technical problems and the first demonstrators delivering significant electrical power, have been realised”

The Score team is now looking for sponsorship to fund testing in the countries in which the generator will eventually be deployed. Indeed Germany’s Department of International Development (GTZ South Africa) has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding to provide funding to test the stove in southern Africa.

Paul H Riley, Score Project Director says “We have had tremendous interest in the Score project from around the world and the Score community —launched a few months ago — is working extremely well. This includes entrepreneurs and volunteers that adapt the stove for local use among its members.”

Practical Action, a charity which promotes the development of sustainable technology to tackle poverty in developing countries, is already leading field trials in Nepal and Kenya. The charity will expand the test sites when more units are made available.

Score community member Mark Loweth works in Tajikistan, one of the poorer countries in Central Asia. He has adapted a variation of a Score Stove to ensure it is suitable for the communities it is aimed at.

“We are very excited with the Score technology as it has the capability of bringing small scale electrical generation to households in the developing world,” he said.

“We plan to field test 20 units in Tajikistan when funding is available through a jointly owned, locally registered company utilising the experience and extensive local knowledge of expatriates and nationals with strong links to rural communities.”

Other members of the international Score Community are investigating how a Score Stove could best be adapted for their local environments.

South African Score community member Rynier Ferreira said: “We are adapting a Score Stove to work with paraffin (kerosene) as many rural communities in South Africa are still highly dependant on it as a major fuel source for cooking. Adapting a Score Stove for paraffin will increase not only the safety aspect for stoves using this type of fuel, but will give the people in these rural communities the additional advantage of electricity and refrigeration.”

Gorge Crowson is also testing the stove in southern Africa after joining the Score community: He said: “We have identified a number of waste materials that can be burnt in a Score Stove and are actively seeking financial support to set up assembly plants in Southern Africa and a distribution network, once the test phase is completed.”

It’s thought that more units will be available for testing in field trials at the start of next year, with full production of the Score generator taking place after 2012.

The Score consortium is funded by grants from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council as part of its initiative on energy and international development.

Kees deBlok of Aster Thermoakoestische Systemen in the Netherlands and Scott Backhaus of Los Alamos International Laboratories are acting as consultants to the Score project.

More information is available from http://www.score.uk.com

Source, July 17, 2009 – http://www.physorg.com/news167054310.html

Bangladesh – Commercialization of Improved Cookstoves in Urban Slums

July 15, 2009 · 0 comments

Commercialization of Improved Cookstoves for Reduced Indoor Air Pollution in Urban Slums of Northwest Bangladesh, May 2009. (full-text, pdf, 2.86MB) USAID; Winrock.

Beginning in 2003, the energy team of USAID’s Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade, and the environmental health team of the Bureau for Global Health jointly supported a cooperative agreement with Winrock International to develop models to reduce indoor air pollution by combining fuel-efficient cooking technologies with behavior change messages and market-based distribution mechanisms. Winrock developed two project models: a rural model piloted in the highlands of Peru for indigenous communities, and a peri-urban model piloted in Bangladesh for poor households.

The objective of the pilot project was to reduce indoor air pollution and fuel consumption via the dissemination and commercialization of efficient cookstoves among peri-urban communities through an integrated and sustainable household energy intervention. The project aimed to establish a sustainable market for improved and appropriate stoves to avoid the need for subsidies, either current or future.

Three models of fuel-efficient cookstoves, each significantly less polluting than traditional stoves, were selected and promoted in this project. Winrock coupled product promotion with a multi-faceted communication ampaign to raise awareness about the risks of indoor smoke and the benefits of behavior change and using improved stoves to reduce IAP exposure. The project team worked with existing local government institutions and health networks to disseminate behavior change messages, and teamed up with local entrepreneurs to disseminate stoves commercially. The project has strong potential for use as a model for incorporating IAP into child survival and health programming activities, particularly those implemented by donor agencies such as the USAID/Bangladesh Mission.

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