Improved Cookstoves for 25 Liberian Village Homes

One of the key activities for my trip to Liberia on behalf of Village Improvement Project, Inc. in January 2018 was to launch and pilot the cookstove initiative for home use. I purchased two Envirofit stoves to test. We did several tests on boiling water and cooking. In each test category, the Envirofit stove outperformed the coal pot stove. However, family members informed me that they found it difficult to use the wood burning stove because of the difficulty of finding firewood in the city. Using coal is more convenient for these urban dwellers.

Next, we hired a local welder to fabricate two rocket stove designs (a two-pot model and a single-pot model). We built 5 of each to test out in the field.  Upon inspection and use, we realized that the stoves were crudely constructed and could serve only as minimum viable products subject to improvement in design. We tested these in two homes in rural Liberia and received initial positive feedback in terms of reduced firewood and faster cooking time. However, there was no appreciable reduction in smoke and because they contained no insulation or pot sleeves, the fire burned uncontrollably on the sides of the pots, thereby reducing the efficiency. We took samples of the two designs to GIZ En/Dev, a German NGO in the renewable energy field, for official testing at their lab and the results confirmed that the stoves had a number of flaws. We plan to use the results of the tests to improve the design for the second iteration.

While distributing lanterns at rural schools, I observed a school feeding program by Mary’s Meals. Mary’s Meals is a large European NGO that is currently feeding students in 506 Liberian schools. They are currently searching for the best improved institutional cookstove on the market.

Because of the potential business opportunity I observed with institutional stoves that a capable of cooking for 100 to 300 people in schools, restaurants, hotels, and resorts in Liberia, we are now working on registering a Liberian social enterprise that will allow us to become a distributor for manufacturers of efficient institutional stoves while fabricating a more efficient rocket stove for home use.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of our donors who are helping us to introduce and promote clean cooking technology in rural Liberia. VIP is seeking to help create a shift toward the distribution and use of cleaner and more advanced cookstoves and fuels that will help slow the rapid deforestation of Liberia's dense rainforest as well as empower women and children who bear the responsibility of gathering firewood and cooking.

As stated in our last report in October, the Liberian presidential election which should have concluded in November was postponed to December 26, 2017, for the run-off. We anticipate a peaceful conclusion to the election so that in January, our planned trip to Liberia will take place. While in Liberia, we will introduce the rocket stove technology using two purchased stoves to conduct a kitchen performance test and the water boiling test that will demonstrate the effect of stove intervention on household fuel consumption and to compare the energy performance of cookstoves versus traditional open fire cooking methods.

At the conclusion of our visit to Liberia in February, we will share more information with you about the cookstove intervention field tests, the distribution of solar lanterns to more villages as well as the distribution of Panasonic's 360 donated solar lanterns to school teachers, rural health clinic workers, and orphanages..