Headed by the University of Oregon’s Global Oregon and of Office of International Affairs, the Spark Initiative seeks to unite a community of parties interested in cookstoves and their implications, attract students to research and internship opportunities within cookstove businesses and nonprofit networks, and generate new partnerships between members of the Oregon University System and local experts. 
Cookstoves may sound small scale and prosaic. And indeed, they are quintessentially everyday and ordinary. They are part of the daily lives of billions of people in developing regions who still cook on wood fires. Gathering wood for these fires consumes significant amounts of forest resources and time, especially on the part of women. Traditional cookstoves use up a lot of fuel, adding to deforestation pressures. They emit high levels of particulates and greenhouse gases, contributing to climate change. Add up this quotidian impact, and you have a major global environmental and human resource challenge.
The inaugural Spark! cookstove event will take place on Friday, May 17 at the Erb Memorial Union and amphitheater at the University of Oregon. The half-day event will feature a keynote speech by Peter Scott of BurnDesign lab, panels by local experts and practitioners, and live stove demonstrations.
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Dear Dale,Apologies for the delayed rsnposee. While we are not experts on biomass briquettes, we are currently experimenting on various projects and such can provide some feedback. The uncarbonized biomass tends to absorb moisture in tropical regions and thus makes it sometimes difficult to light. When lit, the briquettes sometimes emit a lot of smoke. The current trend we’ve seen is combining the sawdust with other biomass, like waste paper, and charcoal fines. Of course, this will also depend on the density of the briquette. Some high-density units can probably burn better but they have to be combined with some accelerant, maybe a resin of some sort. Unfortunately, we are in the process of trying out technologies ourselves, so we don’t have a good answer yet. Nevertheless, it is our intention to very soon establish a web-based forum that will focus on charcoal and briquette-making around the world so that people can have a public place to share questions. I’m sorry I can’t be of greater help right now but please keep checking back with us over the coming weeks.Also, can you tell us a bit about your project? We are always interested in learning more about different briquette projects around the world, especially in the South Pacific. You can write to my email: jkimchaix at charcoalproject dot org. Thanks!Rgds,Kim