World’s 1st plant oil-fueled cooking device developed

BAYBAY, Leyte – An innovative stove now being tested in this internationally known university town has the potential of "revolutionizing" the development of the country’s coconut industry.

Fact is, this stove is fueled by plant oil, particularly coconut oil.

Consider: Two gallons of crude coconut oil, costing P200, are enough to cook one’s food in one month.

Named "Protos" and now dubbed as the world’s first plant oil-fueled cooking device, the stove can go the stretch of more than 300-hour cooking time. Its cooking time is much less than those of stoves fueled with firewood.

Protos, as developed by the BSH Bosch and Siemens Hausgerate in Germany in collaboration with partners, among them LSU, costs P2,000. But since it can be fabricated with the use of locally available materials its cost can be reduced to make it more affordable to rural families.

As Bosh has assured: "In future the stove will mainly be manufactured locally."

Protos was launched last April 6 at LSU with German Ambassador to the Philippines Axel Weisshaupt as special guest. Others present were Leyte Gov. Jericho Petilla, Leyte first district Rep. Remedios Petilla, Leyte fifth district Rep. Carmen Cari, Baybay mayor Jose Carlos Cari; LSU officials led by Dr. Paciencia Po-Milan (president), Dr. Manuel Palomar (vice president), and Dr. Roberto Guarte, engineering college dean and director of the oil stove project); and officials of the institutional partners in the project such as DEG Deutsche Investigations and Entwicklunggeselschaft (KfW Bankengruppe), Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenrabeit (GTZ) GmbH, Bellagio Forum for Sustainable Development, Hohenheim University, and Euronatur (European Nature Heritage Fund).

Also present were 10 journalists from Germany and a dozen from Manila-based international wire services, national daily newspapers (including this writer) and news magazines, and correspondents of national dailies and editors/staff member of community newspapers in Region 8 (Eastern Visayas).

The stove’s potential can best be appreciated when one considers that there are about 300 million coconut trees in the Philippines, making the country the largest coconut oil producer in the world.

Altogether, a Bosch fact sheet states, about 3.5 million Filipino farmers rely on coconut production whereas the coconut processing sector provides an annual average of 1.1 percent contribution to the gross national product (GNP).

On Leyte Island (Leyte and Southern Leyte), about 200,000 hectares, or about 35 percent of its total area, are planted to coconut. About 120,000 farmers or 7.5 percent of the population produce coconut.

Here, nut production reaches 6,000-10,000 per hectare out of which 1,700-2,850 kilograms of copra and 940-1,570 kg (1,020-1,700 liters) of coconut oil can be processed.

To accelerate the Protos project’s progress, a Plant Oil Technology Center has been set up at LSU while can oil processing center has been put up in one of Baybay’s barangays, Ciabu, through its Primary Multipurpose Cooperative.

Machine shops that will manufacture the plant oil stove have also been identified.

With Protos, its developers can be, to borrow a saying, "shooting many birds with one stone."

The stove has been envisioned to help solve energy problems in cooking; eliminate the health problems associated with open fires, especially for children and women; reduce deforestation for firewood or charcoal; promote effective cooking systems that use renewable fuels’ and protect biodiversity.

Moreover, in the case of the Philippines, Protos holds the potential of helping revolutionize the development of the local coconut industry. – RAF