The Indian Initative and the Challenge of Cook Stoves As Good As LPG

In a thoughtful commentary on the new Indian Government National Initiative for Advanced Biomass Cookstoves, C Venkataraman, A D Sagar, G Habib, N Lam and K R Smith say that such a clean energy option for the estimated 160 million Indian households now cooking with inefficient and polluting biomass and coal cookstoves could yield enormous gains in health and welfare for the weakest and most vulnerable sections of society.

The paper "The Indian National Initiative for Advanced Biomass Cookstoves: The benefits of clean combustion" is the result of a collaboration of authors from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi and the University of California, Berkeley, USA.

The paper notes that the initiative has set itself the aim of providing energy service comparable to clean sources such as LPG but using the same solid biomass fuels commonly used today. According to the authors, "to meet the requirements of true “LPG-like” combustion, even greater emissions reductions will be needed than now achieved by available technologies... Nevertheless, current advanced biomass stoves represent major improvement over those deployed in past improved stove programs...These technology development and deployment challenges are not trivial but we believe also not insurmountable, especially if we build on the lessons from the broad arena of technology innovation as well as recent initiatives in the cookstoves arena by corporate organizations, foundations, and NGOs."

Such a clean energy option for the estimated 160 million Indian households now cooking with inefficient and polluting biomass and coal cook stoves could yield enormous gains in health and welfare for the weakest and most vulnerable sections of society.  At the same time, cleaner household cooking energy through substitution by advanced-combustion biomass stoves (or other options such as clean fuels) can nearly eliminate the several important products of incomplete combustion that come from today’s practices and are important outdoor and greenhouse pollutants.

Using national surveys, published literature and assessments, and measurements of cook stove performance solely from India, the reports estimates that 570,000 premature deaths in poor women and children and over 4% of India’s greenhouse emissions could be avoided if such an initiative were in place today. These avoided emissions currently would be worth more than US$1 billion on the international carbon market. In addition, about one-third of India’s black carbon emissions can be reduced along with a range of other health- and climate-active pollutants that affect regional air quality and climate.

The complete article can be read at Venkataraman C, et al, The Indian National Initiative for Advanced Biomass Cookstoves: The benefits of clean combustion, Energy for Sustainable Development (2010)  

The Stove of Hope in Darfur

For the last seven years, Darfur has come to stand for extreme humanitarian distress caused by war. Conflict in Darfur has claimed the lives of at least 300,000 people and created more than two million displaced persons within the region. Many of these displaced persons now live in large IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps throughout Darfur. While global and humanitarian organizations address the many woes of this conflict zone, there are pockets of change effected which is making a difference to the displaced persons, mostly women. One such intervention that is making a world of difference is the Darfur Stoves Project.

There are two notable aspects of the Darfur Stoves Project. First, the compulsion for the project arose from the outcome of conflict. While Darfuris in IDP camps receive food aid and cooking oil from a variety of humanitarian aid organizations, the families are still responsible for gathering firewood as fuel for cooking. Although Darfur is almost entirely desert, scattered trees exist in the periphery of the camps. These trees and their branches are used as a nearby source for cooking fuel. However, due to the size of the displaced persons camps and the duration of their existence, wood is a scarce resource. As the environment around the camps become increasingly deforested, the time needed to gather firewood increases. Today, Darfuri women must walk up to seven hours, three to five times per week, just to find a single tree. As continuing pressure is placed on the environment, women and young girls must walk further and further from the relative safety of the camps in search of wood. These searches are the primary reason women and girls venture outside the camps.

When women and girls spend extensive time outside of the camps, they become increasingly vulnerable to acts of violence. As these events become more common, some women have decided to purchase wood from a middleman rather than search for it. However, as payment for the firewood, families are often forced to sell their food rations or spend what little income they possess. The economic and social costs of firewood mean that as many as half of Darfur families in displaced persons camps miss at least one meal per week. The search for firewood decreases both the human security and food security of Darfuri displaced persons.

The second notable aspect has been the global partnerships at play. At the invitation of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance at the United States Agency for International Development (OFDA/USAID), Dr. Ashok Gadgil and a team of scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory traveled to Darfur in 2005 to assess appropriate stove technology for the region. The Berkeley-Darfur Stove is the result of that initial fact-finding mission (and the subsequent research) and is currently at use in over 5,000 homes in IDP camps in Darfur. Subsequently, the team also found that they could lower production costs, increase capacity and improve quality consistency by shifting manufacturing to India.

The majority of women in Darfur’s IDP camps cook with a traditional three-stone fire. This system requires four times the firewood needed to fuel a Berkeley-Darfur Stove®. Thus, the Berkeley-Darfur Stove® increases the efficiency of fuel use and lowers the amount of wood needed to cook any given meal.

The Berkeley-Darfur Stove® was designed in consultation with Darfuri women and built to the specifications of their needs. Design features of the Berkeley-Darfur Stove take into consideration types of meals cooked, the size and shape of local pots, frequency of use, and more.

In a recent interview to Triple Pundit, Andree Sosler, Executive Director of the Darfur Stoves Project says, "Giving something away for free is a disservice to the people who need it. This philosophy stems from the importance of establishing a feedback mechanism."

Excerpts from the Interview in Triple Pundit, The Darfur Stoves Project: A Market Solution to Poverty:

3p: The Darfur Stoves Project is just one enterprise led by TISS, independent of USAID but created in collaboration with the Lawrence Berkeley lab?
Sosler: OFDA/USAID introduced the Lawrence Berkeley team to CHF International, the initial partner for the project. The team advised CHF and trained their staff to test and adapt the stoves, etc. However, after sending a team to Darfur, and benefiting from analysis from business schools, we found that we could lower production costs, increase capacity and improve quality consistency by shifting our manufacturing to India. Fundamentally, it was a question of heightened comparative advantage. While some firms mass-produce stoves to turn a profit and others focus on generating local income and keep their production local, TISS works with the Lawrence Berkeley lab and our current field partner, Oxfam America to incorporate the strongest aspects of both models.

3p: The Darfur-Berkeley stove is for sale, not for aid donation. Can you expand on the value associated with an item bought versus donated?
Sosler: One of the things that drew me to the Darfur Stoves Project was the very strong belief that giving something away for free is a disservice to the people who need it. This philosophy stems from the importance of establishing a feedback mechanism. When you give something away you can do impact assessment and surveys, but you may not get good feedback on how valued your product is. That said, we just delivered 1,000 stoves for free. The ultimate goal is to negotiate with our partners to set a subsidized price above the price of scrap metal.

3p: In a 2008 interview with the Wharton Journal, you said, “My passion is to develop market-oriented solutions to poverty.” Is that still true? Any amendments or qualifications?
Sosler: Still true. I really believe that a feedback mechanism is crucial and lacking in many elements of international development. Yet, now that I’m working in an extreme humanitarian situation, I recognize that a fully functional market (as it would be defined at Wharton, or by most business schools) is not always optimal. When the goal is worldwide and less focused on those left behind, I would push for more sustainable businesses. I really do think that market solutions to poverty are the way forward.

For the full report and interview: The Darfur Stoves Project: A Market Solution to Poverty.

Photos: Darfur Stoves Project and The Triple Pundit.

Change Brewing in the Kitchen: Time for New Age Stoves

Ambuj Sagar, Professor of Policy Studies at IIT, writing in the Times of India makes the point that as opposed to the earlier almost two-decade-long Indian National Programme on Improved Chulhas (NPIC) that focussed on efficiency rather than clean combustion, the new National Biomass Cookstove Initiative by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy focuses on technology from two specific points of view.

One, that no technology dissemination can succeed without being useful and attractive to the “consumer”. And, two, that just because the ultimate target group is the poor, it does not mean that product has to be low-tech.

The write-up, titled "Change Brewing In The Kitchen: New-Age Chulhas May Finally Make Life Easier, Cleaner For Millions" says:

A quick backgrounder: more than 70% of the households in India still depend on biomass for their cooking needs. These fuels are mostly burnt in traditional chulhas — a three-stone design that leads to inefficient and poor combustion. The resulting pollutants not only lead to enormous health and social consequences for the poorest and the most vulnerable (especially women and children), but also contribute significantly to outdoor pollution as well as climate change.

It is incredibly shameful for India to have an estimated 160 million households suffer these impacts in the 21st century. Globally, an estimated 2.5 billion people suffer the consequences of such poor household energy and the number is estimated to increase in absolute terms in the absence of directed policies to change status quo.
India had a National Program on Improved Chulhas (NPIC) that was initiated in 1984-85 and shut down in 2002.

While there were some questions about its ultimate effectiveness, some 35 million improved stoves were given out. The goals of that program were mainly improved efficiency rather than clean combustion. Recently, the ministry of new and renewable energy has launched a new National Biomass Cookstove Initiative, a very welcome and exciting development.

The government seems open to taking a very different approach. First of all, it begins with the understanding that no technology dissemination can succeed without being useful and attractive to the “consumer”.

Secondly, just because the ultimate target group is the poor, it does not mean that product has to be low-tech. In fact, the initiative intends to provide clean and efficient energy services that could compare with LPG and this objective cannot be met without the use of cutting-edge science and technology to design the next generation of cookstoves.

Providing LPG, of course, would be an even better option but it’s costly and would entail subsidies. In 2008-09, the LPG subsidy burden was Rs 17,600 crore and further increases are seen as unsustainable.

A report prepared for the ministry by an IIT Delhi and TERI team (of which I am a member) has suggested a novel approach – the use of a global innovation prize – as a way to push the frontiers of technology in this area. 

But success cannot come through new technology alone. The report indicates we still need to develop dissemination models that allow for product customization for local needs, build partnerships and networks that facilitate supply chains for biomass as well as cookstoves (and maintenance of the latter).

We will also require a testing and certification system that ensures quality products and builds consumer confidence. A carefully designed assessment system also needs to be in place to ensure that the cookstoves are indeed fitting the bill. But most of all, the program will require a sustained campaign to build awareness and understanding of the ill-effects of traditional cookstoves and promote better-performing alternatives.

What then might be the gains from a successful program? Some of us have tried to assess the potential benefits: as many as 5.7 lakh premature deaths of women and children and over 4% of India’s emissions of greenhouse gases may be avoided. Additionally one-third of the emissions of black carbon, a pollutant that is receiving increasing attention in the climate arena, too could be avoided.

The new cookstoves initiative is very much an idea whose time has come again – and not a moment too soon!

Costing the Earth: Rethinking Climate Change

In a BBC Radio 4 Program "Rethinking Climate Change" in the series "Costing the Earth", a spectrum of scientists and climate change activists discuss the Hartwell report which says that we need to start afresh if we are to have any hope of success.

These scientists point out the obvious failure to reach multi-national agreements on curbing emissions. Future strategy, they say, should be led by individual groups, governments and temporary alliances. Efforts should focus on practical solutions that bring other benefits alongside emission-control. If a strategy brings about poverty reduction or economic renewal then it is much more likely to attract widespread support than any programme labelled as 'anti-climate change'.

This group of scientists argues that the focus on carbon dioxide has been mis-guided from the start. They estimate that more than half of man-made warming can be attributed to sources other than the burning of coal, gas and oil, and most of those emissions are easier to reduce. We should tackle black soot, reactive nitrogen and methane before we make the kind of tough decisions needed to fight carbon dioxide.

In 'Costing the Earth' Tom Heap conducts a thorough examination of the new approach with experts including author Bjorn Lomborg, the UN's Yvo de Boer and climate negotiators from Oxfam and WWF. He asks if it's right to abandon all the efforts made over the last decade. Can we really save the planet without every major nation signed up to the same plan? Shell Foundations's Simon Bishop also talks in the program about improved cookstoves and the contribution it can make to reducing black soot.

Cooking Stoves and Cooking Styles: The India Challenge

There is sufficient support to the thesis of sub-cultural nature of cooking and cooking stoves in traditional stoves which makes the task of finding the perfect, one-size, all purpose stove that much more difficult. Bringing home the point once again was a research by Centre for Development Finance (CDF) from the non-profit Chennai-based Institute for Financial Management and Research.

Writing in the India Development Blog, researchers of IFMR point out once again the importance of putting the user at the center of all cook stove solutions.

CDF's Rural Market Insight team conducted a brief field study of cooking practices across 5 states in India. The need for user-centered design is presented in a video report put together by the Rural Market Insight (RMI) team.


User Behavior Insights from Pooja Bhatia on Vimeo.


In order to gain a base level understanding of the challenges associated with cook stove design and adoption, CDF’s Rural Market Insight team conducted a 6-week scan of cooking practices across five states in India to take a fresh look at cooking practices to determine what factors do, and should, influence cook stove design.

According to the IFMR researchers, "despite impressive gains that have been made in improving the emissions performance of stoves and driving their cost down, it seems that many improved cook stoves still do not seamlessly fit into the lives and routines of the user. This is something we have seen time again throughout many of our field visits as well as user experience research we recently completed in an urban context.This can, and has, resulted in less than ideal user adoption of improved cook stoves. Even those using these improved stoves are sometimes using them differently than expected, so that the performance in the field is unlike the results that were concluded in the laboratory."

"With the many advances in technical design and performance of improved cook stoves, we feel it is time to turn our collective attention to user adoption, which necessitates putting the user at the centre of the design process."

Earlier in the year, the team had covered a 6-week long user test of the Leo Double Pot stove from Prakti Design. During this test, CDF deployed a brand new stove and tracked the subject’s use of the stove twice a week for six weeks. Prakti Design, located in Tamil Nadu, India, designs innovative commercial and household biofuel cook stoves.

The researchers found that users not only had different perceptions, they were wilfully subverting the design principles of the stove to meet their particular habits and perceptions.

The research team notes, "From our observation, we identified 3 key elements where user perception differed from our assumptions. For Rani, smoke is supposed to be good and not bad, because she views smoke as a repellant for the mosquitoes living in the nearby waste pile. Leftover ash from the cooking is either used for cleaning vessels or just discarded, so unless there is a big pile of ash inside the chulha, preventing the entry for the firewood, there is no incentive to clean it and thereby improve the efficiency of the stove. Rani insists on using more firewood because for her Prakti Leo stove is taller than a traditional chulha and so you need a bigger fire to reach the pot."


The result was user modifications: "Through frequent follow-ups, we were able to track the evolution of user modifications. First it started by her saying that she didn’t like the metal ‘pot reducer’ ring (which is used to reduce the flame from reaching the pot in the primary burner and enables some heat transfer for the secondary burner). Next Rani placed 3 stones above primary burner to raise pot and let the fire go around the pot. Finally, she purposefully broke the metal pins off of the exhaust plate, and placed that over the primary burner, resulting in flames exiting the primary burner, but making the secondary burner useless.
Potential reasons for modification could be that the user is used to cooking on a single-burner chulha and didn’t understand the thermodynamics of the stove."

Rising from Haiti's Quake: Cookstoves Adapted to People's Needs

The rebuilding of Haiti after the January 12 earthquake has been guided by a strong focus on environmental sustainability. The office of the UN Special Envoy for Haiti notes that by focuing on the environment, Haiti will emerge as a leader in environmental awareness and innovation. Among other programs, the UN show cases the WorldStove program.

In conjunction with the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the World Food Programme (WFP), WorldStove is working on a pilot project to introduce these stoves for household use in temporary settlements, says the UN release.

For many of the families, this will be the first time they are able to prepare their own food since the earthquake. This project will provide important information on how best to introduce and scale the use of efficient stoves in the recovery efforts for affected populations, and throughout Haiti. Efficient stoves can provide the expected heat output with less fuel, easing the financial strains on individual families and the overuse of wood-based charcoal. Additionally, this technology has significantly lower emissions compared to cooking over an open fire. With widespread use, the technology of efficient cook stoves can provide a safer cooking environment and lower the demand for fuel at the household level.

WorldStove' s stoves provide other environmental advantages such as biochar which can be used to sequester carbon, build low cost latrines, improve soil fertility and aid reforestation efforts, says the UN release.

"WorldStove is committed to building a manufacturing facility for high efficiency stoves in Haiti. This facility will create jobs, offer clean technologies with multiple social impacts, and promote sustainable development."

In an article in Huffington Post, Kelpie Wilson, Communications editor for the International Biochar Initiative, says WorldStove founder Nathaniel Mulcahy "considers it a matter of respect not only to offer a clean, efficient stove to the world's poor, but to make sure that the stove is adapted to people's needs and not the other way around. WorldStove pilot projects in several African countries, Indonesia, and the Philippines have encountered all manner of local conditions that have required changes in the stove setup or manufacturing techniques.

The adaptability of the Lucia stove faced its greatest test in Haiti this winter where Mulcahy carried out a WorldStove Pilot Program in the short space of two months. He not only redesigned the stove to be produced with available tools and materials, but he completed a camp survey. The fact that since the quake more children have been forced to take responsibility for cooking made safety a top priority, so Mulcahy developed a Haitian specific pot stand with heat-shield and windscreen to accommodate the wide variety of pots used in Haiti and protect children from burns. "

PHOTO: Children have taken on more cooking responsibilities since the earthquake. Photo Credit: World Stove