Indoor pollution is a major cause of death for people in developing countries due to the inefficiency and uncleanly burning of indoor stoves. Indoor air pollution-related deaths claim the lives of 1.5 million people a year, mainly women and children. It's easy to imagine someone keeling over after breathing in all that smoke and the yuck that's in it. Envirofit, a US nonprofit focused on engineering, has partnered with UK charity Shell Foundation to design and build affordable clean-burning biomass stoves to protect against indoor pollution, starting in India.

The newly designed stoves reduce harmful emissions by as much as 80% - a significant percentage that will go a long way to improving not only air quality, but the quality of life of people who use the stoves. They’re less expensive to run because they use half the fuel of traditional stoves, while still using the same sources of fuel such as wood, crop waste and animal dung that the users typically burn. And the stoves have an added perk of speeding cooking time up by as much as 40%, which I'm sure is helpful to harried mothers. Cultural relativism was taken into consideration, with the new stoves adhering to the unique cooking methods of Indian women. The team will move on to other areas including Africa and Central and South America, designing clean-burning stoves to fit the residents.

Envirofit as an organization goes beyond just stoves, fighting pollution in developing countries through fixing up two-stroke engines, and they’re working on cost-effectively retrofitting emissions-spewing two-stroke engines with direct injection technology. They’re starting up this endeavor with the Philippines.

Via GoodCleanTech, Envirofit

Comments (4)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

YES YES ECOGEEK!!
written by Stupidmop , July 11, 2008

Once again you hit me with what I want to hear ecogeek! Thanks for the best stories on what I am interested in! Wake up NORTH AMERICANS. THIS SHOULD BE NA 2.0 and SOLAR THERMAL
(our only hope)

You must be joking
written by theirritablearchitect , July 11, 2008

Simply unbelievable.

And this,

"Wake up NORTH AMERICANS. THIS SHOULD BE NA 2.0 and SOLAR THERMAL"

Sounds a lot like despotism to me. You willing to force others to take up your approach? Seriously, I'm asking.

Hope you guys die cold...and in the dark.

naive
written by noone , July 14, 2008

... helpful to harried mothers. Cultural relativism was taken into consideration ...

makes me wonder - have you ever been lived outside of the US? or even travelled?

Director
written by BAYOR , July 31, 2008

mersieurs,

Nous vous felicitons pour votre découverte concernant vos cook stoves adaptés à l'usage des déchets de récolte du bois , des excréments d'anmaux .



Nous souhations vous representer ou etre votre distrobuteur au TOGO Burkina-Fasso etc...

Le desert avance au Togo et pour la protection de l'environnement nous pensons que sa sera un treés bon marché car nous pensons cantacter les autorités ,les décideurs du TOGO qui sont des camarades de classes.

Nous profitons pour porter a votre connaissance notre Societe qui dénommées Comptoire d'Exploitations des produits agricoles et Marketing qui opére depuis 1997 au TOGO.Directeur de la societe et suis président de l'Association "ARTISANT TRANSFERT DE TECHNOLOGIE ADAPT2E ET ENVIRONNEMENT"Toutes nos structures sont enrégistrées au TOGO.

Disposant moi meme d'une huilerie industrielle légere , les déchets des graines oléagineuses , les tourteaux servirons eventuellement comme combustible.toute forme de coopération pour la vulgarisation de vos cook stoves serait la bienvenu.



Dans la suite de vous lire sous peu recevez Merssieurs Mesdames , mes salutations les meilleurs.





Le Directeur



BAYOR Soufiane

Administrateur Civil,Documentaliste

Cel:00228-9167489

9575244





Subject:We wish to be your sole agent in TOGO



Dear sirs,

We are interested in your Biomass stoves.

We would like to be your distributor or buy them



We are looking forward to hearing from you

Yours Fathfully



BAYOR Soufiane

Write comment

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

Add Comment