SMOKELESS STOVE COULD REDUCE HEALTH HAZARDS FOR MILLIONS WORLDWIDE

Crowdfunding Campaign To Spread Low-Cost Technology That Converts Waste Wood Into Low-Emissions Fuel

A smokeless cook stove could greatly help the 3 billion people worldwide who use open fires for cooking and heating, thanks to the efforts of Dazin, a cooperative in Bhutan. Some 4.3 million people per year – most living in areas where alternative cooking and heating methods are not available – suffer from illnesses related to exposure to burning wood, animal dung, or charcoal, with an estimated death rate of eight per minute. And because of their close proximity to the home, women and children are particularly susceptible to the health problems associated with breathing in smoke. Gathering wood for cooking fires and heating also contributes to deforestation and desertification, which further impacts the environment over the long-term on local and regional levels. With Bhutan having one of the highest rates of per capita firewood consumption in the world, this was an ideal starting point for the cooperative to implement the model.

Dazin’s system involves a smokeless stove and a “Fuel Cookie” made from waste wood, which they claim will reduce wood consumption by 84 percent. Instead of being burnt for cooking or heating, “sustainably available” waste wood is collected by rural households and brought to a Dazin facility, where it is converted into Fuel Cookies. Thanks to the efficacy of these virtually clean-burning Fuel Cookies, less time is required to collect wood, with 98 percent fewer emissions released than traditional open fires. Dazin has already run a successful pilot program in Tsirang, Bhutan, gathering a long waiting list in the process. In order to scale up and replicate the program elsewhere, so they’ve turned to a crowdfunding campaign through SoSense.org with the goal of raising a minimum of $40,000. Backers have the option to fund a year’s worth of Fuel Cookies for a family, sponsor a stove in Bhutan, or even get their own stove in a “give one, get one” exchange.