You are here: > home > forum > view

Not logged in < login >

Main knowledge bank page | Recent additions | Recent changes | What links here | Categories | Search the forum
How-to guides | Organisation profiles | Project profiles

Rocket Stoves for Sub-Saharan Africa

Boiling Point
Issue 50 (2005) Scaling up and commercialisation of household energy initiatives
Article	Rocket Stoves for Sub-Saharan Africa
Author	Peter Scott

[top] [end]Background

Since Aug 2003, my partner, Jayme Vineyard, and myself have been working with GTZ ProBEC (Program for Biomass Energy Conservation), EAP (Energy Advisory Project), World Food Program and several small businesses to introduce the Rocket Stove principle to a number of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (Uganda, Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia). Most of our work has focused on building institutional stoves (stoves for boarding schools, tea estates, prisons etc. . . .) but we have also built bread ovens, household stoves and kilns.

Figure 1: Open fire using a 170kg of wood to cook for 55 people (photo: Peter Scott)

Figure 2: Rocket stove using 13kg of wood to cook for 55 people, not the absence of visible smoke (photo: Peter Scott)

In March, one of our project partners in Malawi (Eastern Produce Tea Estates) asked us to help them design a new stove that would be more fuelefficient then their existing open fire. The estate cooks for 40 000 people per day so their choice of stove has far reaching impacts on the health of the workers and the forests. The tea estate’s open fires use 170 kg of wood to cook Nsima (corn porridge) for 55 people. Using Rocket stove principles; we built a new 100 litre cook stove that uses only 13 kg of wood to cook the same amount of food.

We also built them a 200-litre stove that uses 9.5 kg–13 kg of wood to cook enough Nsima for 220 people; this is approximately 160 kg less wood to cook twice as much food. Yes, it does seem counterintuitive that the larger stove uses less wood. Write me if you would like more info on how this works.

Figure 3: Quantities of fuel used by open fire and rocket sotve to cook equal quantities of food (photo: Peter Scott)

[top] [end]Less fuel and less smoke

These two stoves have cut the estate’s fuel consumption by more than 90% as compared to the open fire. The stoves produce almost no visible smoke, and yet they have no chimney – a fact that amazes people each day, all around the world (Figure 1 and 2). Devoted readers of Boiling Point know that Dr Larry Winiarski and Aprovecho Research Center developed the Rocket Stove – a unique system for cleanly burning biomass (see Boiling Point 47 - November 2001 page 36) in the early 1980s – but it wasn’t until the last few years that the Rocket Stove has gained widespread recognition and acceptance.

Figure 4: 200 litre stove for cooking Nsima (photo: Peter Scott)

One of the keys to producing a smokeless Rocket stove is to find inexpensive, local, and durable materials for the combustion chamber. In Malawi, we have been blessed to work with Dedza Pottery. They have helped us produce an insulative refractory brick that is light (0.67 g/cc) and durable (Figure 5). In other countries we have also used pumice blocks, vermiculite and non-insulative ceramic surrounded with insulation.

Figure 5: Combutsion chamber in rocket stove being made (photo: Peter Scott)

If you would like more info about any of these stoves, please contact me at apropeter@... or http://solstice.crest.org/discussiongroups/resources/stoves/Scott/subsahara.htm

[top] [end]Download the original article

Rocket stoves for sub-Saharan Africa by Peter Scott (430 KB)

[top] [end]Contents: Boiling Point 50 - Scaling up and commercialisation of household energy initiatives

.

Scaling up - Scaling Up Biogas In Nepal – Ten Top Tips For Successful Scaling Up – Rocket Stoves For Sub-Saharan Africa – Designing Stoves For Mass Production – The Ecostove – Programmes Promoting Improved Household Energy In China – Is Gender A Key Variable In Household Energy And Indoor Air Pollution Interventions – GTZ News BP50 – Strengthening Community Partnerships - Dissemination Of Solar Home Systems In Vietnam – A model For Dissemination Of Improved Biomass Fuels And Cooking Devices – Institutional Partnership In Improved Cooking Stove Dissemination – Project Gaia Commercializing A New Stove And New Fuel In Africa - Public Private Partnerships For Accessing Electricity In Rural Areas - Energy News From Practical Action BP50 - WHO and UNDP highligh indoor smoke as the killer in the kitchen - Whats Happening In Household Energy BP50

edit this page

Page created: 27 June 2007; Last edited: 05 September 2007; Version: 3
Knowledge Bank text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Pagename: RocketStovesForSub-SaharanAfrica @HEDON: PDFA