USD 1 stove insert may help save thousands of lives

An Indian-origin scientist in US has created a USD 1 metal insert for traditional cookstoves or 'chulhas' which may help save thousands of lives by reducing black carbon emissions that cause respiratory diseases.
H S Udaykumar, professor at the University of Iowa in US, spent several weeks in Rajasthan investigating ways to decrease the amount of firewood used for daily cooking by women in the village.
His goal was to help prevent deforestation in developing countries, but he discovered two secondary benefits that have proven extremely significant.
The rural village he visited is on the edge of a national forest and wildlife refuge, where women and girls trek each day to gather firewood for cooking on traditional three-stone hearth stoves, called chulhas.

The amount of wood harvested from the forest for cooking has been "devastating" and has begun to alter the habitat.
"That area used to have a lot of wildlife, including panthers and tigers," Udaykumar said.

"There are no tigers there now and there are only six or seven panthers left in that whole forest," said Udaykumar.
When using firewood to cook on the poorly ventilated and inefficient chulhas, which do not have chimneys, smoke and soot settles inside the home.
However, more important than finding a way to decrease wood consumption, is decreasing the black carbon emissions, which are known to cause respiratory disease, researchers said.

"Also, black carbon goes into the atmosphere and some people think it is the number two reason for global warming," he said.
"All that soot goes up in the air and settles on ice and darkens the ice, which causes it to absorb more solar radiation and subsequently warms the Earth," he said.
After failed attempts at getting women in the village to use high-efficiency cookstoves made of metal - partly because of their USD 30 cost - researchers came up with the idea of a metal grate insert for the three-stone hearths the women refused to abandon.
The insert, called Mewar Angithi, is made from a steel plate with air holes punched in it. It costs about USD 1.

The insert separates the ash from the wood and allows air flow from under the burning wood, which increases its efficiency.
Researchers found that using the metal insert decreased wood consumption by about 60 per cent and anecdotally observed a significant reduction of smoke, although no formal emissions measurements were taken in the homes.
Further testing on soot emissions was later conducted in a lab, and the researchers found that the metal insert actually decreased emissions by 90 per cent.
The study was published in the journal Solutions.