October 2024
With support from a new CPALI innovation grant, our local sister organization has tested and refined a prototype biochar cookstove. The new stove uses an invasive plant (water hyacinth) converted into biochar blocks. Water hyacinth is a widespread invasive in Madagascar.
Testing a prototype stove demonstrated that it has strong potential to reduce the amount of firewood needed for wild silk textile production, including cleaning and coloring cocoons, and can also reduce the amount of firewood used for cooking daily meals for artisans and staff at the SEPALI Madagascar workshop.
After testing a first design, the team found that it spread as much smoke inside the kitchen area as standard firewood cook stoves used by most families in northeastern Madagascar. Women spend at least 3 hours per day in the kitchen cooking rice and other food for their families, meaning that a smokeless stove could have transformative impact if adopted widely. To reduce smoke inhalation, the team needed to go back to the drawing board.
SEPALI Madagascar has now iterated a chimney at the back of the stove to evacuate smoke outside of a kitchen space. In July 2024, one stove was transported to a village along the border of Makira Natural Park to showcase to local community members. The improved design was tested and accepted to be "smokeless". In these tests, one biochar block was found to provide sufficient fuel to cook both rice and dried beans for a family meal.
Invasive water hyacinth is abundant in every community in the region and can be collected from riverbanks and coastal beaches for drying and processing. The current stove design is stationary and made of cement. A next step will be designing a portable biochar stove made from clay that won’t last as long as a cement stove, but will be less costly and may thus be more widely accessible.
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