By Rob Goodier
A new forced-air stove design intended to make clean stoves burn even cleaner could double as a wood-powered electricity generator in the home. The generator may be the only means of charging cell phones and operating radios in homes that need clean cook stoves most.
The device is a fan that attaches to the side of a “Rocket Stove,” one of the most widely distributed clean-burning stoves in the world. With the fan attached, the Rocket becomes a forced-air stove that mixes the smoke back into the flame to burn away soot.
Forced-air stoves burn cleanest
On their own, Rocket Stoves reduce fuel use by 40-50% and burn about 50-75% cleaner. With the fan, they burn 95% cleaner. That’s according to lab tests by Biolite, a stove-technology development organization, in partnership with Approvecho Research Center, which designed and helped distribute its Rocket Stoves since the 1980s.
To power the fans, the designers considered energy sources such as batteries, solar power, or simply a wall outlet, but those options either added to the cost or just seemed impractical. Rather than require cooks to pay for electricity, the design team figured that the stove should generate its own using a thermoelectric generator.
