Make it so idea - Humanitarian Stove Design, Nepal

The World Health Organisation has found inefficient cooking fires annually claim the lives of more children under five years of age than any other single cause and account for 4% of the global burden of disease.

Engineering students at the University of Adelaide are working on a Make it so project which aims to develop a safe, efficient and cheap cooking stove that can be distributed throughout the developing world. Through their preliminary research they have discovered there is no single stove solution for 3 billion consumers. The University has joined with partners in Nepal to design a ‘dung burning stove’ specific to Nepalese conditions.

In many areas of south Asia and Africa, including some regions in Nepal, deforestation has removed the availability of wood fuel. As such using dung as a fuel source is a real option. There currently exists no commercial stoves to achieve this. This project will develop (and improve) design of a stove looking at the cook tops and methods to achieve good combustion.

• Project Based at University of Adelaide

• 5 Students Total

• Project Supervisor is Dr Paul Medwell and Dr Cris Birzer MIEAust (President YEA SA)

The group of five engineering students are also developing a portable wood burning stove suited for displaced person camps and a more expensive model incorporating fan forced air flow. In addition to the design aspects of their project they will be conducting research into a biochar producing cook stove.

The students are using 'TLUD technology' for their stove prototype, (top, lit, up draft technology) which is different from ordinary stoves which are 'bottom, lit, up draft.' This type of technology saves around 75% fuel material compared to a traditional three stone fire wood stove and can accept waste material such as organic waste which is more readily available, (coconut shells, twigs and grass etc). The students are using a TLUD stove prototype for their stove design and optimising it to allow the burning of dung as fuel. In the project photos the flame is visible however there is no smoke or odor omitted. The entire process is ‘carbon negative’ and environmentally-friendly.

Burning more than midnight oil - An article in the September 2011 edition of the Adelaidean

Cooking in Adelaide with experimental dung-burning stoves - An article on the Engineering for Change website