January 19, 2017 Sector News
Andrew Grieshop
A woman, with sleeping infant on her back, cooking with a forced-draft cookstove in her kitchen in rural Malawi. A traditional cook fire, and the sooty walls that result from its use indoors, are seen in the background.
Researchers from North Carolina State University and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine have found that improved woodstoves provide benefits to the environment and climate in rural Malawi. When compared to traditional open fires, the forced-draft stoves resulted in a 45 percent reduction of fine particulate matter emissions per amount of wood burned and a 47 percent reduction of carbon monoxide emissions per amount of wood burned. Because the forced-draft stoves used less wood, the total reduction of particulate matter emissions was approximately 75 percent.
As expected, researchers found that pollutant emissions from these improved woodstoves were higher than demonstrated in laboratory testing, due in part to differences in use between lab and field testing. These results emphasize the need for field testing before choosing interventions to take to scale, the importance of behavior change communication on proper and consistent stove usage, and developing strong supply chains for processed wood.
The corresponding author of the paper is Andrew Grieshop, an assistant professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at North Carolina State University. To read the full article, click here.
(Source: from website of the Global Alliance of Clean Cookstoves)