Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The Low Hanging Fruit

Third-World Stove Soot Is Target in Climate Fight
One of the most persuasive arguments about cooking stoves being THE solution to Black Carbon that is said to contribute up to 18 per cent of the planet’s warming was by NYT’s Elisabeth Rosenthal.

Elisabeth made the simple point that “Replacing primitive cooking stoves with modern versions that emit far less soot could provide a much-needed stopgap, while nations struggle with the more difficult task of enacting programs and developing technologies to curb carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels.

In fact, reducing black carbon is one of a number of relatively quick and simple climate fixes using existing technologies - often called “low hanging fruit” - that scientists say should be plucked immediately to avert the worst projected consequences of global warming. “It is clear to any person who cares about climate change that this will have a huge impact on the global environment,” said Dr. Ramanathan, a professor of climate science at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, who is working with the Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi on a project to help poor families acquire new stoves. “

However, ‘Low Hanging Fruit” may be a bit of an over reach or an under-estimation. The government of India has since 1983 been promoting and funding programs for replacing ‘primitive stoves’ with smokeless chullahs. However, after 25 years of efforts by the state and the central government as also a wide cross section of non-profit bodies, technical institutes and even commercial manufacturers, it is clear that changing stoves is far from a ‘low hanging fruit’. On the contrary, it will take large size commitment, huge global effort and multiple formats of cook stoves at price points that are dead cheap for the majority of the residents of the planet who still cook on stoves from India to Peru to go smoke-less.
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Thursday, October 15, 2009

The not-so-humble stove

So what’s the big bet on Black Carbon given that it is indeed an immediate challenge for India. One of the points that probably get overlooked in the many informed discussions is that the impact of black carbon is in the proximity of emission and, therefore, of a localized nature. So, for India, it is not merely a question of how much it needs to be a per capita contributor to carbon footprints but, simply, what is it that is getting done in the eco sphere around the Himalayas that is impacting it?
Better stoves with lower emissions is clearly the way to go but the real benefit is from the other equally less visible, from a causative point of view is the health issue. As Penn Univ researcher Jeremy Carl had pointed out in his piece ‘Rising From the Ashes: India’s Black Carbon Opportunity’
“But India’s greatest black carbon reduction opportunity remains in cookstoves. Indeed it is the problem of indoor and local air pollution from cookstoves that has caused the Indian government and many private groups to initiate numerous campaigns over several decades to bring improved cookstoves to rural India. But generally speaking, these attempts have been unsuccessful for a variety of reasons.
First, cookstoves may break and villagers may lack the money, spare parts, or expertise to repair them.
Second, traditional cookstoves give a particular flavor to foods and many Indian women are
reluctant to trade these in even for more theoretically efficient stoves.
Third, with the exception of the work done by the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy, cookstove programs have almost always been done at a moderate scale. To achieve mass scale necessary for meaningful black carbon reduction (or large scale local health improvement), tens of millions of cookstoves will need to be put into the field and utilized. That takes scale, resources, and reach that can only be done with the active participation of the Indian state at the highest levels, ideally through a public-private partnership.
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Sunday, October 11, 2009

Cutting smoke volumes: Improved Stoves

More than half the world’s population uses open fires or stoves for cooking and heating, breathing in lethal fumes inside their homes on a daily basis.

This causes 1.5 million premature deaths each year, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) calculations. In developing countries, this makes Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) the most lethal killer after malaria, unsafe sex and lack of clean water or sanitation – yet, in comparison, this issue has a very low profile.

For the foreseeable future billions of people will continue to use wood, cowdung and crop leftovers as their main fuel. Therefore it is essential that efforts to reduce exposure to indoor air pollution be directed at the reality people face now. Smoke will continue to be produced, so it needs to be removed from the house.
Indoor Air Pollution
Typical traditional cook stoves of south Karnataka can take either two pots or three pots at a time, and use firewood as fuel. The flame surrounds the main pot with some of the hot gases finding their way to the neighbouring pot/pots.

The efficiencies are generally quite low and are of the order of 10%. The kitchens are usually blackened with smoke. A masonry hood-chimney is sometimes provided, which helps in sucking the smoke upwards. The reasons for the low efficiency are not difficult to seek. The main reasons are:
a. Loss of heat through unburnt gases that are released in the air.
b. Radiation loss from the flame.
c. Cooling effect due to excess air factor.
d. Stove losses.
f. Incomplete combustion due to inadequate mixing of air.
Indoor Air Pollution
Improved stoves were primarily designed to increase energy efficiency. The fuel-efficient ASTRA stove, with a thermal efficiency of 44%, was developed and about 1.5 million stoves disseminated in Karnataka. The level of acceptance was around 60%. The experience of Astra also showed the need for more stove designs to cater to the diverse cooking practices in different regions and clean combustion with improved efficiency.

Recently, organizations such as Envirofit and SELCO launched a range of clean burning biomass cookstoves in the country.

Designed by an international team of globally recognized scientists and engineers, the cookstoves made by Envirofit reduce toxic emissions by as much as 80%, while using 50% less fuel and reducing cooking cycle time by 40%. The cookstoves have been developed as a result of a partnership between Envirofit and Shell Foundation (UK).
Shell FoundationShell Foundation





















According to a white paper by L K Atheeq, rural areas of Karnataka face indoor air pollution which leads to health related problems like breathing difficulties, upper respiratory infections and breathing difficulties. Besides, the lack of awareness among the rural poor about indoor air pollution and its consequences, these problems are also linked to the economic, social and cultural issues of the rural community. The paper also lists solutions, models current programmes and the way forward besides highlighting how the state is being impacted due to the issue, especially the rural poor.

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Friday, October 9, 2009

Let the Smoke Out: The benefits of increased ventilation

More than half the world’s population uses open fires or stoves for cooking and heating, breathing in lethal fumes inside their homes on a daily basis.

This causes 1.5 million premature deaths each year, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) calculations. In developing countries, this makes Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) the most lethal killer after malaria, unsafe sex and lack of clean water or sanitation – yet, in comparison, this issue has a very low profile.

For the foreseeable future billions of people will continue to use wood, cowdung and crop leftovers as their main fuel. Therefore it is essential that efforts to reduce exposure to indoor air pollution be directed at the reality people face now. Smoke will continue to be produced, so it needs to be removed from the house.

Simple measures such as using stoves that emit less smoke or use cleaner fuels could have a dramatic effect on reducing IAP. The Shell Foundation ‘My Kitchen, My Pride’ campaign which was rolled out in October 2008 in Karnataka sought to instil small changes that make a big difference: Keeping children away from smoke, using a stove that emits less smoke, using dried firewood, installing a chimney or ventilator, and keeping open the windows in the kitchen.

The message was captured through a protagonist, Khidki Amma, literally "the lady at the Window" who nosed around village houses and discovered the benefits of keeping windows open and using improved cooking stoves.




Improving Ventilation works wonders

According to Chattopadyay Aparajita, Agnihotram V. Ramanakumar in their study “Burden Of Disease In Rural India: An Analysis Through Cause Of Death. The Internet Journal of Third World Medicine. 2005”, “Trend shows 'Coughs' is major cause of death in almost all the states in general; especially in UP and Rajasthan accounting one-third of deaths with no change over a period of time. Bronchitis and asthma maintained top rank over the two decades accounting more than 8% of total rural deaths in India followed by TB of the lungs accounting 6.1% deaths, its rank been dropped slightly in the following decade. Asthma-bronchitis, TB of the lung and pneumonia are accounting heavy toll among the communicable diseases.”

“About one-third of rural population use wood as fuel for cooking and coupled with poor ventilation and bad-housing conditions may be the cause for prevalence of asthma- bronchitis. TB prevalence is 130.8 per 100,000 in India as one of the major killers in rural India, while the world average is only 59.7. A large scale analysis from National Family Health Survey health in 1992-93 clearly shows that more than half of the women age 30 years and older suffer with risk of active tuberculosis. This may be attributable to bad cooking sources and household smokes and suggests that the use of biomass fuels for cooking substantially increases the risk of tuberculosis in India.”

Studies have suggested that the location and ventilation of the kitchen, permeability of roofs and walls and use of improved cook stoves significantly affect smoke exposure. Studies also suggest that the gains from reducing air pollution within the household can be quite large.

First, the reduction of air pollution within the household has the potential to have a direct effect on respiratory—and even general—health. Second, if household tends to be in better health due to the stoves, they can save much in medical expenditures, which tends to be a large portion of expenditures among the very poor. Third, if household members are in better health, there is a potential for the household to be more productive.

Substantial reductions to smoke exposure have been obtained with relatively simple methods. For example, an ITDG Practical Action project in Kenya reduced particulate and carbon monoxide pollution in homes by nearly 80% through the use of smoke hoods and improved ventilation in the home. Increasing the amount of ventilation involves installing a window or cutting eaves spaces into the wall at roof height.

Further, improved stoves have also been shown to reduce fuel use by about 40% compared with traditional open brick ovens. Households that have used them state that the kitchens are cleaner, children are safer from accidents and there is a considerable saving in the use of fuel wood.

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Thursday, October 8, 2009

Wins in Black Carbon may give India a big Climate windfall?

So says Jeremy Carl in a well articulated piece on how there is a big windfall for India in health of the Himalayas and women and children by managing its smoke in the kitchen better. Says Jeremy, a research fellow at Penn University, “black carbon stays in the atmosphere for weeks as opposed to decades like CO2, “controlling it could be the fastest way to slow down global warming in the near future.” The article also states that India has a great opportunity in this area. Along with China, India is the world’s largest emitter of black carbon and the greatest reduction solution for black carbon emissions remains in cooking stoves. This will also reap a domestic benefit as it will reduce the problem of indoor and local air pollution caused from traditional cooking stoves & fuels that contributes to premature deaths of hundreds and thousands of Indians each year.”

Black carbon is second only to Carbon Dioxide as a cause of climate change – accounting for one fifth of ‘observed global warming.’

Clearly, there is much India can do in Copenhagen beyond its well established position on climate change, one that will take care of both lives and the depressing sight of fast melting glaciers. As Jeremy notes, “There is no regime currently in place to deal with black carbon internationally, but by getting out in front of this issue, India can show the international climate change community that it is serious about contributing solutions rather than just rhetoric. “

However, what is probably a good to remember is that addressing the issue of smoke in the kitchen is an important end in itself and should not necessarily be subject to global trade-offs on climate change, as Jeremy makes a point of, given the large number of deaths we are talking about.
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Thursday, October 1, 2009

Keep the wood dry

Shell Foundation
More than half the world’s population uses open fires or stoves for cooking and heating, breathing in lethal fumes inside their homes on a daily basis.

According to reports, lower levels of income group use fuel that is cheap and locally available but not very clean nor efficient. Over 3 billion people worldwide are at these lower rungs, depending on biomass fuels—crop waste, wood, leaves, etc.—and coal to meet their energy needs according to WHO. Asia and Africa are the nations where the use of such fuel is to be seen the most: 95% of the population in Afghanistan uses these fuels, 95% in Chad, 87% in Ghana, 82% in India, 80% in China, and so forth.

This causes 1.5 million premature deaths each year, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) calculations. In developing countries, this makes Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) the most lethal killer after malaria, unsafe sex and lack of clean water or sanitation – yet, in comparison, this issue has a very low profile.

For the foreseeable future billions of people will continue to use wood, cowdung and crop leftovers as their main fuel. Therefore it is essential that efforts to reduce exposure to indoor air pollution be directed at the reality people face now. Smoke will continue to be produced, so it needs to be removed from the house.

Simple changes in the way the cook behaves can reduce exposure to smoke. For example, making sure that fuel wood is dry cuts emissions. The use of a pot lid can reduce the fuel consumed during simmering by a factor of three and overall emission levels by almost a half.

What can make a big difference is to ensure that the wood or cow dung or crop residue being used is dry. Damp biomass tends to smoke more and firewood must be dry for efficient burning.
1. Firewood must be dry when used for lighting a fire as damp wood when burnt releases unclean smoke and covers the walls with soot. The water content of wood must be between 15-20% only. If there is more water than that the stove does not burn the wood effectively or efficiently.
2. The stove must be heated quickly with sufficient kindling as this raises the temperature within the stove leading to clean combustion. The correct lighting of fire also ensures that the stove reaches a good working temperature quickly.
3. Logs that are too large must not be used for burning as there must be air between the wood and the walls of the oven proper burning.
4. There must not be too much firewood as this hampers proper combustion. When wood is heated it gives out gasses, which requires air to be burnt and add to the flame in your stove. If there is too much firewood in the stove it hinders the optimal air supply.
5. Firewood is best bought early and is most effective when stored properly. Wood requires time to dry and it takes about two years for wood after it has been cut to dry correctly. Since smaller pieces of wood dry faster than larger ones, wood must be stored after it is chopped in the appropriate size for your stove. Wood must be stored in a place with air and sun where it is protected from rain.
6. Avoid covering the wood with plastic as this does not let the wood dry by keeping the humidity within. Also, it is not advisable to store wood indoors as there is a risk that the wood may rot due to insufficient ventilation.

Shell Foundation’s “My Kitchen, My Pride” campaign of 2008-09 was aimed at spreading awareness about the benefits and the necessity of keep wood dry as well as other ways to limit kitchen smoke.

The campaign was meant to raise awareness about the dangers from kitchen smoke, including pneumonia, respiratory diseases, cataracts, among others and guide them in making small changes to reduce kitchen smoke rather than ignoring the dangers of smoke in the kitchen.



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