|
An inexpensive metal insert for the traditional mud cookstoves could decrease global warming and potentially reduce household pollution hazard for thousands of women and children in developing countries.The insert, named Mewar Angithi by the scientists who developed it, is made from a steel plate with air holes punched on it and sides bent to make it an elevated platform on which the wood to be burned is placed.A study authored by H S Udaykumar, professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at the University of Iowa, and published in the November issue of Solutions, recounts how Udaykumar spent several weeks earlier this year in Rajasthan investigating ways to decrease the amount of firewood used for daily cooking by women in the village. The village is on the edge of a national forest and wildlife sanctuary, where women and girls trek long distances each day to gather firewood for cooking food on the traditional three-stone mud hearth stoves called 'chulhas'.The amount of wood harvested from the forest for cooking has been devastating and begun to alter the habitat, the study says.That area used to have a lot of wildlife, including panthers and tigers, Udaykumar says. There are no tigers there now and there are only six or seven panthers left in that whole forest.When using firewood to cook on the poorly ventilated and inefficient 'chulhas', which do not have chimneys, the smoke and soot settles inside their houses.But more important than finding a way to decrease wood consumption, he says, is decreasing the black carbon emissions, which are known to cause respiratory disease.Also, black carbon goes into the atmosphere and some people think it is the second reason for global warming, he says. All that soot goes up in the air and settles on ice and darkens the ice, which causes it to absorb more solar radiation and subsequently warms the earth.After failed attempts at getting women in the village to use high-efficiency cookstoves made of metal partly because of the cost (Rs 1,800) - researchers came up with the idea of a metal grate insert for the three-stone hearths the women refused to abandon.The device named Mewar Angithi costs just about Rs 65.The insert separates the ash from the wood and allows air flow from under the burning wood, which increases its efficiency.Researchers found that using the metal insert decreased wood consumption by about 60 per cent and observed a significant reduction of smoke. Testing on soot emissions was later conducted in a national lab in India, and Udaykumar and his team found that the metal insert actually decreased emissions by 90 per cent.The World Health Organization estimates that more than two and half billion people worldwide still cook food by burning wood and more than 4 million people die prematurely each year from illness connected to household air pollution due smoke emitted during this process.About 2,000 of the inserts are already in use at the present time, and additional research will take place in India this winter, Udaykumar said.UNI YSG SV 0834
-- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0109-482893.Xml
|
