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Engineers Aim To Make Cleaner-Burning Cookstoves For Developing World
vinces99 writes in with news about a new cookstove design for developing countries. "About 3 billion people, or 42 percent of the world's population, rely on burning materials such as wood, animal dung or coal in stoves for cooking and heating their homes. Often these stoves are crudely designed, and poor ventilation and damp wood can create a smoky, hazardous indoor environment day after day. A recent study in The Lancet estimates that 3.5 million people die each year as a result of indoor air pollution from open fires or rudimentary stoves in their homes. More than 900,000 people die from pneumonia alone, which has been linked to indoor air pollution. University of Washington engineers hope to make a dent in these numbers by designing a cookstove that meets a stringent set of emission and efficiency standards while still being affordable and attractive to families who cook over a flame each day. The team has received a $900,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to design a better cookstove, which researchers say will use half as much fuel and cut emissions by 90 percent."
Didnt Philips do this 5 to 10 years ago????/
Because it's the THIRD WORLD, not the 'developing world' (LOL), and their average IQ is under 70. That's why.
When are the poor, hard done by third worlders ever going to help white people? Don't hold your breath.
An excellent idea. Don't forget to market it! Distributing a paper via Elsevier and calling it a day will not change a thing.
From the concept art this looks like they are making a simple rocket stove and putting a pot skirt on top. There are quite a few people working to develop low cost, efficient, and nonpolluting cook stoves for poorer countries, but most of them use natural materials (stone, brick).
I'm just wondering how much one of these things would cost? Looking at the sleek concept art, I'm guessing more that a family living in a mud hut and cooking with twigs and cow dung can afford.
And fire places, people have been successfully using them for hundreds of years without killing themselves. Lets face it people, if your burning bullshit in a 50 gallon drum to cook your food "yet another better stove" isnt going to do you much good.
That number is so high, it positively smokes of bullshit.
Some team of "researchers" found out people in some countries are still carrying things. Carrying heavy stuff has been linked to back problems. People all over the world have back problems. The team has now received a bajillion dollar grant to reinvent the wheel.
From the concept art this looks like they are making a simple rocket stove and putting a pot skirt on top. There are quite a few people working to develop low cost, efficient, and nonpolluting cook stoves for poorer countries, but most of them use natural materials (stone, brick).
I'm just wondering how much one of these things would cost? Looking at the sleek concept art, I'm guessing more that a family living in a mud hut and cooking with twigs and cow dung can afford.
Not to mention that, if you're burning stuff, then poor ventilation in the vicinity of the stove will defeat much of the intent (health, clean-burning, etc.). This remains so, however well the stove may function in a better location.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
It's called rocket stove and can be built easily from different material:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_stove
This reminds me of this project: Potential Energy (formerly The Darfur Stoves Project)
Popular Mechanics covered it in this article: Low-Tech Stove Saves Lives in Sudan's Darfur Region
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Rocket stoves work pretty good. They burn at a higher temperature and consume more of the fuel while reducing emissions. Very easy to construct and cheap to fuel with just sticks and leaves.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
A recent study in The Lancet estimates that 3.5 million people die each year as a result of indoor air pollution from open fires or rudimentary stoves in their homes. More than 900,000 people die from pneumonia alone, which has been linked to indoor air pollution.
Yep. And of course no one mentions how cigarette smoking is still quite prevalent in the countries that rely on said stoves.
Folks - especially you engineers - beware when numbers are stated. Aside from engineering and science, the rest of the World is quite fast and loose with numbers.
Mhy recent argument with an engineer regarding a revenues number:
"This number is unrealistic. I don't see how they got it."
BSME: "They got it from somewhere!"
Me thinking: "Yeah, out of their ass!"
Anyone can spout numbers. Take a Cost Accounting class ( or just read a fucking book about it) and realize that - it's not complete horseshit, but horseshit fertilizes the numbers.
Maybe they just need to provide pressure cookers to everyone? See this article with a rudimentary table comparing cooking time: http://missvickie.com/library/investment.html
In 1742, Franklin finished his first design which implemented new scientific concepts about heat which had been developed by the Dutch physician Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738), a proponent of Isaac Newton's ideas. Two years later, Franklin wrote a pamphlet describing his design and how it operated in order to sell his product. Around this time, the deputy governor of Pennsylvania, George Thomas, made an offer to Franklin to patent his design, but Franklin never patented any of his designs and inventions. He believed “that as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously”.
Wow.
Better known as 318230.
http://cookstoves.lbl.gov/ Lawrence Berkeley Lab
The design looks identical to this concept which was distributed in Africa years ago.
http://www.research.philips.com/technologies/woodstove.html
Run it hot on clean, dry wood at full power for as long as you can, the thermal mass you surround it with will absorb the heat.
Oh wait, the reason folks burn crappy wet wood in inefficient stoves is that they're poor, or they're too sick from dirty water (50% of all premature deaths on Earth are from bad water) to gather wood. How does this help that problem?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
>> Didnt Philips do this 5 to 10 years ago????/
> Didn't Ben Franklin do this 250 years ago?
Didn't the russians do this over 1000 years ago?
The russian oven is considerably more efficient than Franklin's. Designed to retain heat for a very long time, it contains an intricate brick maze of passages and chambers. Russians have used this type of oven since ancient times, cooking, baking, bathing (inside), sleeping (on top), hiding, and healing. The oven is prominently featured in many old stories and legends and pretty much every russian over 60 has used one at one time or another.
Cough.....rocket stove.....cough
The Patsari stoves family: Designed by the UNAM, Very Well Known, Efficient and cheap, Easy to build low tech, Healty to use
http://www.patsari.org/
"Its the Erins versatility which means that it can burn wood, coal, peat briquettes or smokeless fuel. Combining the power and efficiency of its heat output, the Erin is the right choice for a larger home." ref
>> Didnt Philips do this 5 to 10 years ago????/
> Didn't Ben Franklin do this 250 years ago?
Didn't the russians do this over 1000 years ago?
A common erroneous attribution, the Russians really got the design from the Klingons.
I'm not knocking the design, but that's like comparing apples and oranges.
The "russian oven" is one design that was built for one environment and the "franklin stove" is a different design for different environment.
I would say if you are dumb enough to to cook on a wood or dung fire in your house and it fills with choking smoke every time you should probably stop doing that. The ones that figure this out will survive and the rest, well....
Here's yet another one:
http://www.brownongreen.net/2011/05/simple-stove-improves-human-health-environment.html
I think:
1) The wheel is being reinvented due to lack of communications
and
2) The problem may not be technological but Social and Cultural. Changing the way people cook may be a very hard.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Anything from US is most unwelcome in these parts of the world, please stop HELPING us. US helping third world country, any country, has not been witnessed and reported yet. Just stay the FUCK out of our "hell holes" "shit holes" etc as so many of you refer to us.
FUCK YOU VERY MUCH,
The Third World.
And send over millions of propane gas stoves. Propane is easy to come by in the developing world, because that's where much of America's refining is done (since, you know, America likes to outsource its pollution to third world countries).
So these guys, but 3 years late to the party?
http://www.cleancookstoves.org/
I guess mechanical and chemical engineering masters students all need a thesis subject...
i remember reading a similar story a few months earlier. nice to see another story about cleaner-burning cookstoves.
http://www.biolitestove.com/homestove/overview/ for the "homestove" which is intended for folks who need it "full time". Yes, it is more expensive, but they are working on funding sources.
One of the funding sources is us outdoor geeks, on their website you can find the campstove, the campgrill and the upcoming pot. Some of their profits go towards their homestove work.
I've got the campstove, it does a very nice job. Perhaps by next summer I'll invest in the grill.
This is silly. Even if you were able to mass produce this item and give it away for free it would still be the most expensive item these people own and a target of thieves. There's currently a project on Kickstarter for a solar oven that has pretty much the same goals. It costs $300, the main component is a glass tube, and it's completely worthless. It has raised $80,000.
This design is nothing but a rocket stove which can be made from a variety of found components by someone with minimal tools and knowledge. We'd be better off spending that $900,000 on training a few guys to travel around these regions to set up stove factories and train the local population on the concepts. Not only would we be teaching them how to build their own stoves we'd be supporting the local economy. Teaching a man how to fish, so to speak.
...but isn't man's disruption of the natural processes that keep the population in check a direct contributor to the world overpopulation problem? From a strictly scientific point of view, drastically altering the mortality rate of the world's population by decreasing it (and increasing the birth/death ration) can't be a good thing. Many of these people have lived generations in their current environment, so why does a first world country believe they have the right to disrupt nature in such a drastic way?
So a first world country solves the woodstove problem, thereby decreasing mortality rates. Are they prepared to then step in and deal with inadequate water supplies, increases in loss of arable lands, higher rates of infant mortality, and other side effects of overpopulation?
I'm not knocking the design, but that's like comparing apples and oranges.
The "russian oven" is one design that was built for one environment and the "franklin stove" is a different design for different environment.
Yeah, the Russian Oven may be bigger than the dwellings these people are living in.
My suggestion would be some form of multi-fuel gasification system. Its highly efficient and produces very low emissions. The problem would be simplifying its operation, making it smaller & engineering it so that it didn't require electricity (for the blower).
aha, and they will also print a table of fast-growing woody plants (tree or tree-like) ... hopefully?
that grow "the most fast" and shed alot of branches in the user manual
i nominate this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albizia_saman (also because it makes copious amounts of seeds)!
You are correct and Ben Franklin was aware of that. He studied heating exhaustively as his book, 'Observations on Smoky Chimneys, Their Causes and Cure: With Considerations on Fuel and Stoves' demonstrates. Ben Franklin designed his stove as a compromise. He loved an open flame despite it's inefficiency.
This is not really totally new news! Another effort to develop a cheap (approx. 8 Euro) useful cooking stove with a chimney is described here: http://ofenmacher.org/index.php?sfwi=201&sflng=1&sfcr=&sfci=103651 by the German non-profit group 'Die Ofenmacher'. The stove avoids injuries and respiratory problems, while reducing the amount of wood needed. It also provides an employment opportunity for local stove makers!
They already did this in Central America. There is a company there making stoves that cost about the same at traditional stoves but are 50% more efficient with wood and 90% less emissions: http://www.sustainableharvest.org/news-articles/articles/newsletter-articles/origin-and-benefits-of-the-damak-wood-conserving-stove
Different parts of the world will need different types of materials in the stove building. Metal is usually cost prohibitive, so bricks and adobe need to be used where available.
I've built a few tiny stoves ... a rocket stove and a wood-gas stove in the last few years. The rocket stove produces a huge amount of heat quickly and burns clean. The wood-gas stove burns with very high efficiency using hardly any wood once the burn converts to wood-methane gas. Very little wood is used. Both are amazing compared to a normal fires; camp fire, chimney fire, even a high-efficiency stove like we deploy in "cabins" in the USA for cooking and heating.
The U.S. Department of Energy has no business spending tax payer dollars on foreign conutry benefits. Now, if private donors find this to be a worthy cause, I'm all for that.
Jeez. Slashdot has really gone downhill.
The Klingons did not design it. They took the technology when they wiped out the last of the Jedi.
Bloody university PR departments presenting every research project as if it's some Eureka moment.
"For over a decade, cookstove experts and enthusiasts have gathered at Aprovecho [Research Center]". In 2009 The New Yorker had a long article about stove enthusiasts designing better stoves, what's changed since then? The Chinese are already cranking out Rocket stoves in volume; other commenters have linked to www.cleancookstoves.org, Biolite, etc.. The problem isn't engineering, it's economics and cultural.
Meanwhile, any stove still requires spending hours collecting firewood, contributing to deforestation and CO2 emissions. As an adjunct people can put food in a black pot in an insulated container heated by a cheap solar reflector. But now you've got two $20 purchases per family, one of which only works part of the time. Meanwhile the U.N. spends millions trucking fuel into refugee camps. Again, the problems are NOT engineering ones.
=S
The Klingons did not design it. They took the technology when they wiped out the last of the Jedi.
Of course the Jedi copied the technology from the Ewoks.
This should be about making a CHEAP, nearly fail-safe, anaerobic digester, that will take human and animal waste and create methane. It needs to allow easy run-time loading, rather than batch loading. With such an approach, it solves multiple issues.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Why are they burning them? Surely they could train them to build better stoves?
What matters is not the uniqueness or otherwise of the design but instead that it is better than what is currently being used. To push the rocket analogy even more they are using ancient Chinese fireworks when a Saturn five is available which with a few minor tweaks can be brought within a tighter budget.
In the third world?
Are those significantly cheaper than the ones they had before?
http://www.potentialenergy.org/solution/stoves/
We already have too many people on this planet. Stop investing money and resources into stupid projects like these. Let nature take it's course.
I personally own a small Russian oven (I am Russian) and am repairing it just now so I must stress that it's NOT so efficient. Problem is that to collect all the smoke produced in a furnace the passages should be short enough limiting the heat collection efficiency. So the two-furnace ovens are usually built but it differs from a traditional design. The second furnace has a traditional "Holland" construction.
And a traditional Russian oven is too big. There should be at least 1.5*2 meters sleeping place on top for all the family.
How is this different from a rocket stove. Already open source and constructable from old cans.