Biomass heating and cooking stove for developing countries.
Status: Prototype built. Emissions testing paused (about 6 years). Restart planned at our Mebane site.
Around the world, families cook and heat their homes by burning wood and crop waste in stoves that make a lot of smoke and little useful heat. That indoor smoke is tied to pneumonia, tuberculosis, and chronic lung disease. Women and girls usually gather the fuel, and that time comes out of their education.
We built a prototype solar-assisted biomass pellet stove for heating and cooking. It is designed to burn readily available agricultural leftovers like rice husks and coffee pulp. Emissions testing has been paused for about six years. We plan to write a fresh test protocol and resume testing at our Mebane site. When the data are in, we'll share them here.
Gathering wood and water Women and girls in developing countries are usually tasked with the gathering of these each day, preventing their education and development.