The Eco Fire Pot Stove is designed to allow women in
developing nations to cook using relatively clean-burning fuel,
instead of toxic smoke-producing wood or kerosene (Photo: Adama
Kamara)
Chances are that even if you own a propane camp stove, you've
tried cooking over an open fire at least once. When you did,
despite your best efforts, you probably ended up sucking down a
lot of smoke in the process. Now, imagine doing that for every
meal. For many women in the developing world, breathing in toxic
smoke while cooking over a wood, kerosene or coal fire is part
of their daily routine. Not only can it have a detrimental
effect on their own health, but it also worsens local air
pollution and (in the case of wood fires) deforestation. The Eco
Fire Pot Stove, however, is designed to allow these women to
cook while breathing clean air.
The device was invented by Adama Kamara, a natural therapist
who was born in Sierra Leone, but moved to Australia in 1996.
"The UN estimates that around 1.4 million women and children
die each year because of inhaling fumes from wood or solid
biomass burning in traditional cook stoves," she told Gizmag. "I
believe that women should not be given a death sentence because
they can only afford to use solid biomass fuels for cooking in
traditional cook stoves. I decided to help by designing and
building a stove that can use a variety of fuels for cooking,
which produces less indoor air pollution and thus reduce the
disease burden in women and small children."
The stove itself is very simple – it's pretty much just a box
with grated burner-like holes on the top. Underneath each hole,
a metal receptacle holds a natural fiber wick. That wick sits in
a pool of relatively clean-burning crude biodiesel, made from
waste vegetable oil blended with methanol or ethanol and wood
ash. One receptacle containing 500 ml (17 US ounces) of fuel
should provide about six hours of burn time, which ought to
allow for the preparation of at least three meals.
Unlike a solar cooker, which is another alternative to toxic
fume-producing cooking fires, the Eco Fire Pot Stove can be used
when the Sun isn't shining.
While the current version of the stove is made out of sheet
metal, Kamara says it could also be made locally by its
users from scrap metal, clay or bricks. Her intention isn't so
much to send ready-made stoves to developing nations, as it is
to provide residents with the knowledge of how to make them
themselves. The fuel could also be homemade, as vegetable oil is
already commonly used (and then discarded) in such countries –
glycerine, which is a by-product of soap, candle and biodiesel
production, could also be used.
"It is my hope to one day see a universal Healthy Kitchen
Program for women in the developing world, to enable them to
reach the full health potential of their lives, whilst doing
their normal tasks of providing a cooked meal for their family,"
said Adama. "This is the motivation for my invention."
Via
The New Inventors
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