Mr. Nguyen Manh Ha, the inventor and also the chairman of Blue Sky Company

PREFACE

  Cooking stove is a device of the oldest in, the closest to and the most indispensable to daily life of every family. With quantity up to billions globally and tens million in Vietnam, cooking stoves have been directly relative to vital issues in current life: Energy, Economy, Environment, Safety, and Convenience, decreasing hardship on women, children and the old in housework.   

Emissions from cooking account for 25% of those around the world, contributing to green house effect. Especially, in statistics of the World Health Organization (WHO), every year 4.3 millions of dies and hundreds of millions of people suffer from cancers, pneumonia, hearth diseases… due to household cooking emissions.

Currently, for many reasons (economy, environment…), biomass cooking stoves still account for an absolute quantity. Nevertheless, most of these stoves have very low utilization efficiency (8-10%), slow cooking, even much smoke and toxic emissions. Actually, there are 2 kinds of biomass stoves including: directly firing stoves (forced combustion) and gasification stoves (creating gas fuel before combustion for heat). Gasification stoves have remarkable technical efficiency: easy to regulate temperature, less smoke, ash and dust, and heat efficiency higher than that of directly firing stoves; but gasification stoves have more complicated structure. However, under current trend, gasification stoves will dominate the market and get more popular than directly firing stoves.

1- Gasification stove kinds:

Gasification stoves have 2 main kinds: Directly firing gasification stove and indirectly firing gasification stove. Directly firing gasification stove is the kind creating gas fuel and cooking right on the stove exit zone; indirectly firing gasification stove is the kind creating gas fuel first; such gas then is cleaned, cooled and led out for firing in combustion chamber(s). Directly firing gasification stoves usually have much simpler structures, lower prices, and easier use compared with those of indirectly firing gasification stoves. Thus, directly firing gasification stoves will be of the most popular.

Many countries have been researching and manufacturing many kinds of directly firing stoves. Yet, because of high costs, and especially of incomplete technology, their use efficiency has many limits, making them not yet popular right in those countries.   

2- Necessity for clean and economical cookstoves:

Present needs for cooking stoves: of the most saving on fuels; easy to use; meeting different cooking purposes; safe; protective to environment and user health; affordable to everyone; durable, easy for repair; of civilized and clean use; using abundant and endless fuels; can be used popularly in all areas, especially in commodities of low income people are still the legitimate desire of most housewives. This requires companies, scientists, managers and plan makers, socio-economic organizations, communication units… to find out products and solutions meeting the above needs.   

3- 2V Biogas Stoves

 - After many years of researches, Blue Sky Energy Technology Co., Ltd. in coordination with the Institute of Regional Research and Development have developed one kind of gas stove using biomass fuels meeting all demands: “Energy saving, economical efficiency, environmental protection, safe and convenient for users”, that is “Blue Sky 2V biogas stove”, also called as 2V biogas stove.
-  2V Biogas Stoves use the Updraft principle to creating heat and gas fuel at the same time; including gasification segments for complete gas combustion. Possibly to say this is a first-ever technical creation, bringing the highest heat transfer efficiency and the cleanest operation to 2V Biogas stoves.  

2V Biogas stoves also have special and unique features compared with every kind of stoves in the world:

-          Can use all kinds of biomass fuels: fuels of small sizes (saw dusts, straw husks) and fuels in bar forms. 2V Biogas stoves can use biological alcohol, coal, and beehive coal.

-          Can operate smoothly with or without electricity.

-          You can stop a 2V Biogas stove very quickly and cleanly even when it has fuels inside; then you can easily continue firing it with the rest fuel (fuel saving).

-          2V Biogas stoves have unlimited sizes (including big-size furnaces into which you can feed more fuels during operation in order to last your cooking for many more hours.

-          2V Biogas stoves are very durable, leading to the cheapest prices (even the shortest-life part can be used for 5-10 years and can be replaced easily and cheaply when necessary).

Being one kind of biogas stoves using the most popular, cleanest, cheapest and abundant fuels as plants, 2V biogas stoves have the following advantages: cheap, efficient, easy to use, compact and durable structure, easy to produce, easy to distribute, contributing to environment protection, hunger elimination and poverty reduction… 2V biogas stoves will be “stoves of all families”, especially for BoP people. Comparably with plant fuel stoves available inside or outside the country, it’s possibly to say 2V biogas stoves have first-ever and outstanding technical function and efficiency. Thus, 2V biogas stoves can be developed in the following areas and markets:  

1/ Domestic market  

With the trends of increasing prices of LPG, electricity, coal…; environment pollution, less safety due to use of LPG, electricity, and coal, our Government have issued many policies to encourage production of energy saving and environment protection. This makes stoves using plant fuels in general (especially 2V biogas stoves with their advantages) get more and more interests, encouragement and development.  

Facing a market of 26 millions of families in Vietnam (most of which are in rural areas, mountainous areas, urban boundaries, industrial parks…), 2V biogas stoves meet criteria of many domestic and international large-sized socio-economic programs in Vietnam (programs of hunger elimination and poverty reduction, environment protection, energy security…); Through experiments in many localities, we get many very positive feedbacks; most of localities need to supply big quantities of 2V biogas stoves. Possibly to say this is the market of thousands of billions VND of profit.

2/ Foreign markets   

Demand for stoves cheap, economically efficient, safe, protective to environment, easy to use for developing countries, especially those in SEA, Africa (and even in China, as the world-largest market) is actual and so large. Thus, if we have good strategies for marketing, production and export, 2V biogas stoves will create so high economic efficiencies: getting much foreign currency, solving domestic works, contributing to the earth environment protection, and increasing prestige of Vietnamese products in the world…   

GENERAL ASSESSMENT 

1- Vietnam has about 26 millions of families, most of which are peasant families. Therefore, needs related to energy security, cooking stoves and environment get a lot of adequate interests, and are especially in line with the policy of “New countrysides” construction promulgated by our Vietnam Party and State.  

2- 2V biogas stoves meet many criteria of an ideal stove: fuel saving; easy to use; can be of mass production for lower costs; durable, easy for repair; safe to use; protective to environment; efficiently use recycle and endless energy sources from biomass fuels like agri-forestry residues.  

3- The utilization of agro residues, planting of high biomass trees for fuels will increase incomes for peasants; creating more works for labors (in producing stoves, manufacturing pellet production lines, pellet production, fuel pre-processing).   

4- With the above-mentioned advantages, hopefully 2V biogas stoves will create a renovation in cooking, especially for BoP families, considerably contributing to energy security (replacing most of fossil fuels which are expensive, limited and dangerous), positively protect living environment as long as the development and use of 2V biogas stoves are organized in large size and synchronously at all stages (production, advertisement, distribution, after sales…), and especially get interests and supports from all levels of State authorities and users.  

5- Compared with current biogas stoves of other countries, 2V biogas stoves of Vietnam have many advantages, completely ready for export of products and technology.  

6- With with the efficient operation principle of 2V biogas stoves, we have successfully made and tested High power gasification stoves for industrial stoves, restaurants, army forces, and to creating heat for agro product processing…