The Need
In the developing world 3 billion people rely on biomass fuels such as wood and charcoal for cooking. The burning of biomass in inefficient cookstoves produces life-threatening smoke. Tragically, this kills nearly 2 million people each year - mostly women and children - more than double the number of deaths caused by malaria. Harvesting fuelwood also drives devastating deforestation of tropical forests.
BURN Design Lab
BURN is a Vashon, WA non-profit founded by Peter Scott in 2010 to address this global issue. Its mission is to save lives and forests in the developing world by designing and locally manufacturing clean burning cookstoves.
Peter has been designing fuel efficient cookstoves for the past 15 years and is considered a leading expert in the field. In 1990, Peter committed his life to saving the forests of Africa. Since that time, he has designed countless fuel efficient technologies. He's trained producers in over 20 countries who have made over 500,000 tree saving technologies, such as clean cookstove and bread ovens. His work has been featured in The New Yorker and on CNN. In 2010, he was chosen as one of Foreign Policy Magazine's 100 Top Global Thinkers.
The Tank - A Clean Burning Stove
In the last 18 months our team - in concert with Kenyan women - has created "The Tank", a new super fuel-efficient charcoal stove prototype. The stove uses 50% less fuel than the existing improved stove widely used in Kenya. The Tank is currently receiving rave reviews from cooks in Kenya and outperformed all other cookstoves in East Africa in recent independent trials. One woman has gone as far to say "it's like cooking with gas!"
A Happy Tank user!
Over the three-year life of each Tank stove, it will avoid 7.5 tons of greenhouse gases (tCO2e), as well as saving 39 trees and saving end users as much as $540 in fuel costs!
The Funding Gap - Our Indiegogo Plan
A manufacturer is ready to locally produce The Tank in East Africa once it has been fully proven in the market. They will produce 1.5 million Tank stoves over the next 10 years that will save 53 million trees and impact the lives of 8.3 million people.
In order to turn The Tank into a market ready product, we need your help to meet our target of $20,000 to launch the product. This investment directly targets pilot programs, market tests, focus groups and the purchase of key equipment. With your help we will save millions of trees and impact millions of lives in East Africa!
Contribute in Other Ways!
We need Your help! There are a wide variety of ways that You can do:
- Get the word out about this campaign!
- Join us! Volunteer, intern or apply for a job!
- Donate a bike or car (tax receipts available)!
Rewards
Top rewards include an opportunity to learn how to build rocketstoves for a week with BURN in the Maasai village in Kenya and Olivia Pendergast original paintings!
Email boston@burndesignlab.org with any questions regarding rewards.
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Want to Geek Out? - How it Works?
We use basic principles of Heat Transfer, Combustion and Fluid Dynamics to make the super fuel-efficient Tank stove. A batch of charcoal is loaded from the top and sits on a metal grate, similar to a Webber Grill. The charcoal is lit igniting all of the fuel. The combustion of charcoal naturally draws air through the ash-tray and below the fuel through the grate.
- The combustion chamber holds a batch of charcoal that perfectly cooks a typical meal in East Africa to ensure that no charcoal is wasted after cooking!
- As air travels over the hot ash-tray on its way to the combustion chamber, it is pre-heated to improve combustion
- The air enters combustion chamber below the charcoal to give good mixing between the fuel and air to improve combustion
- The hot combustion gases travel out of the stove and blast the bottom and sides of the pot through carefully optimized gap sizes
- A "radiant shield" located below the grate reflects radiant energy back up to the pot!