Wonder Cooking Stove to help Millions of poor people in Africa

 A ground-breaking cooker which could transform the way electricity is generated in the homes of people living in poverty has been successfully tested by Practical Action.

The international development charity, in partnership with a consortium of universities, has developed the Score-Stove, which combines fuel efficiency with state-of-the-art technology to change sound waves into electricity.

Practical Action the organisation founded by Fritz Schumacher use technology to solve problems faced by the world’s poorest people and the Score-Stove is typical of their work. The charity believes it has the potential to provide energy which could enable millions of vulnerable people to access better education and healthcare.

2012 is the UN year of sustainable energy for all and the organisation has pledged to make access to energy a reality for everyone by 2030. The development of these stoves will help deliver that goal.

The stove is approximately 60 cm square and around 70cms high and attached to a specially shaped pipe. The heat causes dozens of thin metal sheets with tiny holes to vibrate and produce powerful sound waves.

The sound waves travel into a speaker and cause it to flap at up to 70 times a second, moving an alternator which in turn creates electricity.

Already, it has undergone rigorous tests in homes and universities in Nepal, Bangladesh and Kenya. So far, the stoves have produced up to 36 watts of electricity. It is hoped they will eventually produce 50 watts.

Teodoro Sanchez, Score-Stove project manager for Practical Action, has just returned from testing a prototype in Kenya. He said: “This remarkable stove has the potential to drastically change the lives of people living in poverty around the world. It can bring electricity to people who have never had it - giving them reliable access to light, heat, education and healthcare for the first time in their lives. It is fuel efficient and although the sound inside the pipe is intense, it creates no more than an external hum.

“It has developed from our work to reduce deaths resulting from breathing in smoke caused by cooking on open fires in the home.

“We have been working with the university teams to design more efficient, less smoky cooking stoves and reduce the amount of wood needed to cook. But this project does that and more.”

The technology is the brainchild of Score-Stove project manager Paul Riley, from the University of Nottingham. He believes the product will be ideal for use in the developing world, where millions of people have no access to energy. Practical Action has been advising lab teams on how the stove can be used and assembled in the field.

He said: “We must adapt the lab version, taking into account local biomass fuels, types of pots and pans used to cook, along with the everyday tasks the unit will be required to do.

“It must also be produced affordably and locally. That means slight design modifications are needed in each area so that local materials can be used. We must preserve the excellent levels of performance that we’re seeing in our labs.

Watch-out for more stories from Practical Action.