Kirk R. Smith – Why the Rural Poor Need Propane and Butane

Kirk R. Smith is among the world’s leading authorities on the problem of indoor air pollution. In 2007, the World Health Organization found that indoor air pollution was killing about 500,000 people in India every year, most of them women and children. The agency found that pollution levels in some kitchens in rural India were some 30 times higher than recommended and that the pollution was six times as bad as that found in New Delhi. Globally, more than 1.6 million people per year die premature deaths due to indoor air pollution caused by burning biomass – wood, dung, roots, straw, etc.

A professor of global environmental health at the University of California, Berkeley. Smith has been researching the problem of indoor air pollution since 1981 and he has been working hard to publicize the problem. In 2002, Smith wrote a piece for Science magazine titled “In Praise of Petroleum?” in which he argued that increased use of hydrocarbons, particularly propane and butane, would be an effective – and relatively inexpensive — way to reduce the numbers of these deaths. Smith earned his doctoral degree from UC Berkeley in biomedical and environmental health in 1977. He has been a member of National Academy of Sciences since 1997.

RB: I know you’ve done extensive work in Guatemala and India. Are you still working in those countries? Other countries?

KRS: I have worked in a couple dozen countries altogether but my primary work has been in India, Nepal, China, and Guatemala.

RB: The problem of indoor air pollution is clearly important. And yet it doesn’t get as much attention as other health issues like vaccination and safe drinking water and sanitation. Why not?

KRS: Well, it depends of course, on who you talk to. It is getting more attention than it used to. It’s up there in the official estimates. It’s being ranked up there with poor water and sanitation as an environmental risk factor. I think part of the reason, is that air pollution has been associated with power plants, and vehicles and cities. And that’s where original measurements and regulations occurred. But it’s not actually where the highest air pollution levels and where the highest occur.

This is a kind of a forgotten population. The poor women in rural areas of developing countries are about as low on the totem pole, globally, as you can get. They don’t have anybody speaking for them. They don’t have their own Sierra Club or whatever.

RB: In our recent email exchanges, you said that you got a lot of negative comments for your 2002 piece in Science. Can you recall some of those responses?

KRS: I think people, I’d like to think they didn’t read what I wrote carefully or perhaps I didn’t phrase it carefully…LPG [liquefied petroleum gas, i.e., propane or butane] is a very high quality fuel, it’s can be burned cleanly and efficiently with low cost and easily. And so on. Even if you were to substitute LPG for all of the biomass used for cooking in the world, it would have very impact on overall resources. So why ask the poor to take on the need to use fancy, new novel untested, renewable energy devices when we have something that’s good for them? They have many other needs. And this is a great thing for them.

The piece was written about the time of the Johannesburg earth summit or whatever it was called. And they were saying that the poor in Third World areas should only use renewable fuels. And I was saying well, why is that? We have this stuff, why not use it for a high quality purpose?

It’s not to say it would be cheap. Nobody is stepping up to the plate to pay for this. And I must say since 2002, we’ve come to understand even more about how household combustion contributes to climate change. And one of the more interesting and important pollutants now it’s realized to be black carbon — small soot particles which are extremely harming the atmosphere.

About one-third of the black carbon emissions in the world are from poor household combustion. So you can’t have a black carbon program without considering combustion in households. That is even more benefit to clean combustion. Now that clean combustion could occur with LPG. Of course, it also occur with more efficient biomass stoves that burn the materials more completely and don’t emit any side products including black carbon.

So now I have a two-pronged approach: Push LPG where you can, and that’s usually in the better-off part of the poor population. They are still poor by global standards but better off than the poorest part. And in the poorest part, you are going to have to depend on local biomass resources and try to bring in these advanced combustion stoves that bring emissions down to LPG levels, not quite, but that’s the kind of two-pronged approach.

Now of course, there are efforts to bring liquid or gaseous fuels from biomass. Biofuels — ethanol, biodiesel, and all sorts of fancy things, and so. They would also burn cleanly in households, but there’s no real activity in that yet. But there is an international LPG industry…

RB: I’ve recently exchanged emails with Emanuel de Merode, the game warden in Virunga National Park about the problem of deforestation in that region and how that deforestation threatens the park’s gorilla population. One of the solutions that de Merode and others have put forward as a solution to the problem is similar to your argument: butane stoves. I know it’s politically unpopular to say it, but it seems to me that you could argue that oil is “green” – or at least it’s greener than many of the alternatives, i.e., dung, tropical wood, etc. Do you agree?

KRS: That’s basically what I said in the Science editorial which offended some people. It’s hard to make a global generalization on the issue of deforestation. In fact, when I talk about it, and I think most of my colleagues, we are careful not to say household use causes deforestation. We say something like it puts pressure on local forests. Most studies show that deforestation is occurring. But that is happening due to agricultural use, forestry, roads, etc…. There aren’t too many places in the world, outside of Africa, where there’s a close link between household fuel use and deforestation. In Africa, there are direct links but it’s mainly through the charcoal fuel cycle, not through the direct use of wood.

The issue there is that charcoal is widely used in Africa. There it pays to cut a forest in the middle of nowhere and the charcoal is high enough density and high enough value that n you can drive the charcoal on a truck 1,000 kilometers and still make money. I never know what to say about charcoal. It’s a very inefficient use of the primary resource. It does lead to pressure on the forest in some places. And it’s also very clean when burned in the house. So it probably has a health benefit in the house. But I think the charcoal fuel cycle in a tradition setting is the most greenhouse-intensive fuel cycle in the world…So it’s a tricky thing, charcoal.

RB: To be clear, that was the problem in Congo: the charcoal producers were cutting wood in Virunga National Park.

KRS: That’s a serious issue. And much of that demand is urban. So there’s some logic to the idea if you could get people to shift over to LPG, it would reduce the pressure. But of course, the local household is going to look at it based on relative prices.

RB: In your 2008 paper, “Wood: The Fuel that Warms you Thrice,” you discuss the problems that various governments have had when trying to provide subsidized LPG to rural areas. How might a subsidized fuel program be made to work effectively?

KRS: We don’t know the answer to that fully. One thing that we’ve learned is that you have to be careful subsidies in general. If you have to be most careful with ongoing subsidies for purchases of things like fuel. On the other hand, if you provide a subsidy for someone to buy an LPG stove and their first cylinder, that’s effective because there’s no other use for it. If you subsidize the fuel, then people will use it in other ways, tractors, trucks, and so forth because the fuel is cheap.

Subsidies are what economists call “leaky.” They don’t help the people you meant to help. Indonesia and India which subsidize lpg a lot, they may be spending more on fuel subsidies than their entire health budgets. I’m all for clean fuel but I’m not sure that’s a good tradeoff. But there are business models, and technologies, like smart cars, and GPS-based cars that are getting to be reliable and cheap enough that you could have a smart subsidy system that wouldn’t be so leaky…These subsidies have a bad reputation and in some cases, that’s rightly deserved. It depends on where the subsidy occurs.

RB: So as you look forward, are you hopeful about your work? How do you see what’s happening?

KRS: In 1990 I was trying to get money for this research from the US EPA. And they said we are interested in indoor air pollution. But we can’t really help in India. It has to apply to Navajos or Eskimos, or somebody in the country. And we went out checked and we found out that we were one generation too late. There wasn’t anybody left using open fires for cooking in the country.

But there was the first flurry of interest in climate change….And they said, at EPA, “well, wait a minute,… greenhouse gas anywhere is a greenhouse gas everywhere.” So we got a grant to do the first measurements of greenhouse emissions and health-related emissions in rural India and China. And that’s still the only systematic database on these things. And that got me into what we now call co-benefits. That is, here’s a way we can achieve two major goals, we can move ourselves toward less climate change and make major improvements in health.

That is now becoming operationalized through carbon offsets. Where you basically get Belgians or the French or Germans to pay for improved stoves because they get carbon credits and the local people get the energy benefits….

We have spun off an NGO from my work. It’s headed by a former student. It’s called Impact Carbon, it has sold the first approved stove program on the international carbon market in April, in Uganda. With exactly this model. In this case, it’s Land Rover that is paying for the carbon credits and it is also getting some good will. And the stoves bought with that money are being used in Uganda and they are saving wood and reducing air pollution, and everybody is winning. It’s a win-win situation. So I’m hopeful. We are now on the trail of a much larger project in China, with the same idea and using 400,000 stoves. Here might be the financial mechanism where a big piece of the cost can be written off and charged to international carbon market. So I’m hopeful, yes.

RB: And how many stoves are being used in Uganda?

KRS: The first round was 30,000. And we are trying to get another 30,000.

Source, July 23, 2009 – http://www.energytribune.com/articles.cfm?aid=2110

Characteristics of gaseous pollutants from biofuel-stoves in rural China

Shuxiao Wang, Wei Wei, Li Du, Guanghui Li, Jiming Hao,

Characteristics of gaseous pollutants from biofuel-stoves in rural China, Atmospheric Environment, 2 June 2009, ISSN 1352-2310, DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2009.05.040.

The research team analyzed the emission characteristics of gaseous pollutants, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), from biomass combustion in improved stoves in rural China. The research included measurements from five biofuels and two stove types in the months of January, April, and September. The measurements were conducted according to U.S. EPA Method 25 using a collection system with a cooling device and two-level filters. CO, CO2, NOx, CH4 and THC analyzers were used for in-field, real-time emission measurements. The emission data indicate that gaseous pollutants were emitted at higher concentrations in the early combustion stage and lower concentrations in the later stage. CH4 and THC, as well as CO and CO2, presented positive relationships during the whole entire combustion process for all tests. The chemical profiles of flue gas samples were analyzed by GC/MS and GC/FID/ECD. Aromatics, carbonyls, and alkenes & alkynes dominated the VOC emissions, respectively accounting for 37%, 33%, and 23% of total VOC emissions by volume. Benzene was the most abundant VOC species, consisting of 17.3 +/- 8.1% of VOCs, followed by propylene (11.3 +/- 3.5%), acetone (10.8 +/- 8.2%), toluene (7.3 +/- 5.7%) and acetaldehyde (6.5 +/- 7.3%). Carbon mass balance approach was applied to calculate CO, CO2, CH4, NOx, and VOC species emission factors. This analysis includes a discussion of the differences among VOC emission factors of different biofuel-stove combinations.

Cost/benefit analysis of biomass energy supply options – Tanzania

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

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

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

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

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

NECESSITY 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