A Good Stove is Hard to Find!

This has been one of those weeks where our readers have been keeping us plenty busy. Frequently people write to us with questions about energy and the environment, that is what we are all about after all. Most of the time we can just point to an existing article or get a quick bit of advice from one of the experts that kindly volunteer their time to help us keep you informed. However, this week we got a couple of stumpers that took a bit of time to research. One question had to do with the relative cost effectiveness of electric boilers versus traditional fuel oil boilers. Proved to be a really interesting question which is going to result in a new article in our Saving Energy section. More on that later in the week.

Another question was a request from a reader who was working on a bio-methane project on a farm and wanted to find a methane stove. Seemed like a simple request at first but turned out to be a lot tougher than we thought.

Finding fuel for cooking has long been a major issue in developing countries. Fuel for cooking has become increasingly scarce. In Africa continued drought has killed many trees and plants which were used for fuel. It has also killed off many of the cattle which provided cow dung which was often used for fuel. In other countries deforestation has also eliminated many fuel sources. Moreover, the use of these traditional fuels for cooking inside a home often results in excessive in-door pollution which can severely damage health and increase the spread of disease. Accessible, non-polluting cooking systems are badly needed.

One option which has proven remarkably successful has been low-cost solar stoves. These stoves can be very effective at both cooking and boiling water for sanitation and are being distributed world-wide through the U.N and other humanitarian agencies. To find out more about these types of stoves check out our article on Solar Cooking article in the Solar Energy section of our Web site.

Methane stoves are another excellent option. They are being widely used in many parts of India, Asia and Central America. The approach is ingeniously simple. Often the methane digester is simply an old truck tire inner tube which has been filled with animal waste. The tube is sealed and left in the sun and before long anaerobic digestion occurs and it begins to fill with methane gas. The gas can then be channeled to a stove and used for cooking. One of the best descriptions of this process can be found on a site which describes a methane project in Costa Rica. There is even an instructional video that shows you how to do it. You can find it at: http://www.ruralcostarica.com/biogas-video.html.

In doing research on this topic we found lots of information on how to make methane digesters. What we were not able to find was a company that manufactured small stoves designed to run on methane. We saw a couple of blogs that suggested that regular gas stoves could be used but that the intake orifice on the stove needed to be adjusted for it to work properly. Given that we don't have a resident stove expert on staff, and we haven't a clue what an intake orifice is (at least one on a stove). Therefore we decided we would reach out to all of you to see if any of you have ever come across a methane stove. If so write to us and we will be sure to pass it on to our readers. Also, if any of you are actively involved in any bio-gas projects we would love to have you share your experience with us. Meanwhile keep those letters and emails coming! Keeps us out of trouble:)

Dan