An innovation prize for clean cookstoves
ahmad khalid
Pollution:
An innovation prize for clean cookstoves
Nature,
497: 317, May 16, 2013
Ambuj D. Sagar (IIT Delhi) & Kirk R. Smith (UC Berkeley)DOI:
doi:10.1038/497317c
Published online
15 May 2013
A radical shift in engine technology in the 1970s (Honda's CVCC) drastically cut motor-vehicle emissions. A comparable game-changer could solve an even bigger pollution problem today.
Household air pollution from the traditional biomass-burning stoves used in
many developing countries is the world's largest environmental-health threat,
leading to 4 million premature deaths annually (S. S. Lim et al. Lancet 380, 2224–2260; 2012). We
propose that a multimillion-dollar innovation prize should be set up, funded by
governments or private philanthropy, to rapidly bring cleaner, more efficient
and affordable stoves to poor people.
The competition would attract the world's best combustion scientists and
engineers, and would help to take the current efforts of non-governmental
organizations, small companies and academics to the next level (see S. Anenberg et al. Nature 490, 343; 2012).
The prize would be awarded for a durable, low-emission biomass-combustion unit
the 'heart of the hearth' rather than for the stove itself. Stove designs
could then be adapted around this to meet local requirements.(See
attached file: Nature HOH 13.pdf)
Best regards,
Ahmad Khalid (New Delhi)
Manu Sharma
Dear all this info was shared by Dr. VVN Kishore (TERI University) through Ambuj D. Sagar (IIT Delhi) & Kirk R. Smith (UC Berkeley)
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"We propose that a multimillion-dollar innovation prize should be set up, funded by governments or private philanthropy, to rapidly bring cleaner, more efficient and affordable stoves to poor people."