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Liquid Biofuel Stove Programmes

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Roughly 3 billion people in developing countries rely on woodfuels for their daily cooking, lighting and heating needs. In recent decades the unsustainable exploitation of biomass, for both household and industrial use, has been causing increased concern due to the damage done to the environment as well as to human health. At a local level deforestation can lead to increased flooding and declining soil quality, whilst on a global level the combustion of biomass has major implications for climate change due to the release of large amounts of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases. Whilst much of the CO2 is absorbed back into plants during photosynthesis, if it is unsustainably harvested this absorption effect is largely negated.

The use of open fires and cook stoves makes household energy usage a large source of pollution, with the burning of biomass indoors, often in poorly ventilated houses, being strongly linked to acute respiratory infections (ARI’s) and other health problems. As cooking is mostly a task undertaken by woman this particularly affects them, and more so their young children who often spend long periods of time at their side. It is estimated that ARI’s are the biggest killer amongst children under the age of five world wide, resulting in over 2 million deaths annually.

Compared to traditional fuels, more modern energy sources such as paraffin (kerosene) and liquid petroleum gas (LPG) offer increased efficiencies, reduced emissions and are more user friendly. However they release fossil fuel derived ghg’s, and are often more expensive to both the national economy and the user, with poverty being one of the main barriers to their uptake. Liquid biomass cooking fuels combine some of the advantages of both traditional and new fuels and ethanol is beginning to emerge as a viable household fuel, with options based around either a liquid or ‘Gel Fuel’ form of ethanol

[top] [end]Alcohol - Ethanol and Methanol

There are currently a variety of alcohol-stove programmes aimed at finding a more efficient, cost-effective solution to the problem which is also friendlier to the environment and to humans:

  • ProjectGaia is an Ethiopian based programme which seeks to create a model by which a household market for alcohol based fuels can be developed on a commercially viable scale throughout Ethiopia, while also informing how replication can occur across Africa. They have adapted an existing stove to use both ethanol and methanol in a safe and affordable way.

  • The Millennium Gel Fuel Initiative is a public-private partnership set up to adapt and disseminate an [ethanol] cooking fuel for use in the African household sector. The programme developed a low cost combustible ethanol gel, produced by adding a thickening agent (cellulose) to ethanol, which achieved a step increase in safety over a liquid fuel due to it’s high viscosity.

  • Nari Ethanol Stove. The Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) of India have been developing both an ethanol stove as well as a sweet sorghum feedstock for ethanol production.

  • The SuperBlu Stove. Bluwave Ltd of Malawi have developed a novel ethanol burner technology for use in a cook stove as well an industrial burner.

Categories: Ethanol


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Page created: 10 April 2007; Last edited: 13 April 2007; Version: 1
Knowledge Bank text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Pagename: LiquidBiofuelStoveProgrammes @HEDON: KGEA