Cool + useful = yay!!

[raven_albion]

Rice-powered stove ignites new hope for poor farmers"Alexis Belonio’s obsession with rice husks began in 2003, when rising fuel prices and heavy dependence on foreign oil slammed his native Philippines with an energy crunch

Comments

[ex_katiecre]

He might want to take a very close look at the particulate from the smoke. We have rice fields here and the farmers used to burn the waste in the winter. Then someone discovered that the tiny particles in the smoke had a way of staying in the lungs.

[raven_albion]

The article does talk about how others tried to make rice husks into useful fuel and how the fine-ness of it made a smoky inefficient fire. It seems like the way this stove burns (uses a fan to make the burn more efficient and reduce smoke) might reduce that risk. It will be an interesting innovation to follow, anyway, and if it does work and doesn't create particulate issues...well, like I said above, cool + useful!