[Stoves] Coal stoves

[nari phaltan]

Dear Stovers,

Last week I was in Eastern India visiting the rural areas of West Bengal and
Jharkhand states. I travelled in 300 kms radius of Kolkata. Most of these
areas were extremely polluted with smoke from coal stoves. The air was
difficult to breath and the eyes burnt with the smoke. Yet the whole eastern
India uses coal for cooking. The coal dust is available plenty cheap. It is
mixed with about 10-15% mud and made into briquettes which are sold at
Rs.1-2 /kg. It is therefore poor man's fuel.

Similarly in the month of November I was invited by the Office of New Energy
Leading Group in China to advise them on rural energy strategy. This group
is directly under the Prime Minister of China. The Chinese officials told me
that the most important source of cooking in rural areas in China is coal.
No matter what the world says the Chinese will never ban or curtail its use
as domestic cooking fuel.

We may not like it but coal cannot be wished away in both these countries.
What we as technologists and stove experts can do is to develop good
smokeless stoves running on coal. It is a very big challenge but worth
trying.

I do hope some of you may take up this challenge. Hence this mail.

Warm regards. Anil

-- 
Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI)
Tambmal, Phaltan-Lonand Road
P.O.Box 44
Phaltan-415523, Maharashtra, India
Ph:91-2166-222396/220945
e-mail:nariphaltan at gmail.com
          anilrajvanshi at gmail.com
http://nariphaltan.virtualave.net