World Stove: Pyrolitic Cook Stoves For Haiti
Permacorps For Haiti has been closely following the amazing progress of World Stove on the ground in Haiti. Here is an inspiring update from Permacorps Advisory Board member Albert Bates:
My friend and stove mentor Nathan is on the ground in Haiti making Lucia Stoves without the usual machined parts from Milano, just from scrap. Helps to have a Ph.D. in fluid thermodynamics. These are better than the Approvecho GreenTec clay stoves from China because they gasify rather than torrify and give pH neutral biochar on 1/3 the fuel rather than caustic ash on 1/2 the fuel. The biochar can also be used to filter water. It already filters the air through the char while the downdraft stoves burn so the indoor air is scrubbed of VOCs. Very little smoke. If you are familiar with the commercial versions of the WorldStove seeing one made from an oil drum is revelatory.
~Albert
02/22/2010 from Nat Mulcahy:
The large stove in this photo is the first 100% a Haitian made Lucia Stove and it cooks meals 200 school kids at a time the smaller stove is the household sized version.
Here you can see the inside we have both the burner unit and the fuel drying chamber (handy with the rains now here)
the artists working onthe stoves insisted on making trees and birds on it AT NO EXTRA CHARGE to letpeople know that if they use LuciaStoves the trees will come back to Haiti and then so too the birds!
Great to know that there are Permies on the ground in Haiti, and I love the idea of using scrap (which must be plentiful) rather than waste money bringing in a lot of product. Even if only a few Haitians really learn how to make these stoves, they will be able to spread the knowledge. My only complaint is that the photos don’t show.