There's a major downside to the reliance upon wood stoves. The cheap,
antiquated stoves used by rural dwellers in Africa and elsewhere aren't
very efficient, and they spew smoke that contains black carbon,
consisting of tiny particles that are only partially burned. It's the
same stuff that's found in fireplace soot, and it's a serious health
risk to the people who breath it in.Beyond that, black carbon gets into the atmosphere where it's
many times more potent than more plentiful carbon dioxide. Black carbon
is a significant contributor to the greenhouse effect that's altering
our planet's climate. "It absorbs sunlight so much more strongly than any other type
of pollution," explained Christopher Cappa, a University of California,
Davis professor of civil and environmental engineering.....
To that end, the UN has formed a public-private partnership, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, which is coordinating efforts to get 100 million households worldwide to burn wood more cleanly.
It's not been an easy transition. "There remain substantial economic and cultural challenges to having these technologies adopted," Cappa said. "People are currently working to develop cookstoves that better replicate the feel of traditional stoves but that emit less pollution to facilitate increased adoption."
One potentially powerful innovation is the BioLite HomeStove, created by product developers Alec Drummond and Jonathan Cedar, which contains a thermoelectric generator that converts some of the fire's heat into usable electricity. That current, in turn, is used to power an internal fan, which forces more air into the fire and improves combustion, so that it's cleaner and nearly smokeless.
Read full article from the source: http://news.discovery.com/human/clean-cookstoves-could-slow-climate-change-151118.htm
To that end, the UN has formed a public-private partnership, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, which is coordinating efforts to get 100 million households worldwide to burn wood more cleanly.
It's not been an easy transition. "There remain substantial economic and cultural challenges to having these technologies adopted," Cappa said. "People are currently working to develop cookstoves that better replicate the feel of traditional stoves but that emit less pollution to facilitate increased adoption."
One potentially powerful innovation is the BioLite HomeStove, created by product developers Alec Drummond and Jonathan Cedar, which contains a thermoelectric generator that converts some of the fire's heat into usable electricity. That current, in turn, is used to power an internal fan, which forces more air into the fire and improves combustion, so that it's cleaner and nearly smokeless.
Read full article from the source: http://news.discovery.com/human/clean-cookstoves-could-slow-climate-change-151118.htm
