Gaia Association supplying local ethanol for cook-stoves improving health & safety of users.

[JohnWxy]

http://www.ashdenawards.org/blog/local-ethanol-now-available-cookstoves-ethiopian-refugee-camps


Gaia Association won an Ashden Award in 2008 for its work in bringing ethanol stoves to Somali families living in refugee camps in Ethiopia. In early 2009, however, there was an interruption of their ethanol supply and, since May of that year, Gaia had been forced to run kerosene stoves in the refugee camps in Ethiopia, rather than ethanol stoves. As readers of this blog know, kerosene is dirty, smoky and dangerous. Despite Gaia's best efforts, several people using wick stoves have died in kerosene fires. The kerosene is also expensive - about $0.85/litre when purchased for the camps.

Last month Gaia started to get local ethanol supplied from a new government distillery. It comes at the cheaper price of $0.52 per litre. This is a win-win situation: providing a safer cooking fuel for the camps and a profit to the government for their ethanol production. Ethanol also reduces greenhouse gas emissions by one tonne per year per stove (when compared with a kerosene stove) or six to 10 tonnes per year when compared with a wood fire.


Harry Stokes, Director of the Gaia Association, explains how the use of ethanol benefits Ethiopia:

"This shift towards local ethanol supply creates an example for what is possible when more ethanol fuel is produced in the country—which is coming. When all of the existing wasted molasses from the sugar industry is used for ethanol production, there will be about 130 million litres produced annually. Of this, the automotive fuel sector will absorb 30 to 40 million litres, and the remaining amount will be available for stove fuel, a market which in fact can take much more.

[poopfuel]

1. could be very exciting for the small still manufacturer!

Project Gaia has made inroads in Haiti as well.