With innovative stove, Pinoys don’t need LPG

Filipinos can now live without liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). And they don’t have to go to the forests to gather wood for cooking.

With Filipino-invented innovative stoves that use agricultural wastes like rice hull (ipa) as fuel, savings in LPG and wood can go to helping preserve what’s left of the country’s forest cover.

These cooking devices can at the same time solve the perennial problem of disposal of rice hull and other agricultural wastes, which are usually burned or left in the field to rot.

Among these award-winning novelty stoves is the Maligaya rice hull stove (MRHS) developed by engineers of the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice), which uses rice hull as fuel.

A recipient of the United Nations-Food and Agriculture Organization (UN-FAO) award, this environment-friendly, practically smokeless stove is economical and efficient, costing only about P500 (if made of GI sheet) and P1,000 (stainless material).

With its features, the MRHS comes handy to households not only during cold months when one usually boils water for a hot bath or coffee but also throughout the year when it can be used to cook food.

The stove can boil a liter of water in four to five minutes and can burn for 28 minutes, enough to cook rice and vegetable viand for a family of five.

Artemio Basallo, who together with Eulito Bautista designed the Maligawa stove, said that the device’s fuel is free – all one has to do is go to the field and scoop mounds of rice hull left in the open or just burned by farmers.

On the national level, it can help the government save what remains of the country’s forests. As a participant in a training on the stove in Midsayap, North Cotabato, had said:

"The Maligaya rice hull stove could be a solution to the deforestation problem in Mindanao. The demand for firewood encourages cutting of trees. If rice hull, which abounds in major rice-producing areas in Mindanao, should be used as firewood substitute, cutting of trees could be minimized."

Bautista also said that many farm tools manufacturers have produced thousands of stove units, with PhilRice providing the design for free.

Another international award-winning stove was crafted by the Aklan State University (ASU) in Banga, Aklan.

Dubbed "Mayon Turbo Stove and Dryer" and touted as "poor man’s gas stove," the environment-friendly device was designed by ASU researchers Dr. Edito Agustin, Prof. Francisco Nablo, Ferlinda Galvan, and Engr. Yori Jamin.

It won the 2006 World Bank Innovation Marketplace Award (Panibagong Paraan Award).

A joint venture of ASU and Sustainable Rural Enterprise (SRE) REAP-Canada, the MTS and dryer project was among the marketable technologies exhibited at the 18th National Research Symposium organized by the DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) at its R&D Management Information Center in Quezon City.

The stove’s main fuel is rice hull. One needs only 2.5-3 sacks (25-30 kilograms) of rice hull a week for such chores as cooking rice (20-30 minutes for 1 kg of rice), boiling water (6-8 minutes), and frying (6-8 minutes).

Alternative fuels are corn cob and shells of coconut, peanut, and pili nut.

The byproduct after cooking carbonized rice hull can be used as soil conditioner, fertilizer, cleaning pots and pans, and insect repellents.

ASU, headed by Dr. Benny Palma (president), computed that cooking cost a year (inclusive of MTS purchase; the stove costs P750) is about P2,000 compared to the P4,000-P7,500 for cooking using firewood, charcoal, and LPG. ASU expressed optimism that its stove can considerably help save the country’s fast-dwindling forests, which have mainly been the source of fuel wood for rural people.

Also soon to be commercialized is a stove that makes use of plant oil, particularly coconut oil, as fuel.

Now called "Protos" and touted as the world’s first plant oil-fueled stove, the device was crafted by the BSH Bosch and Siemens Hausgerate GmhB of Germany in partnership with the Leyte State University (LSU) and other European entities.

The project is supported by the environmental foundation Euronatur.

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

The stove’s initial prototype costs P2,000. But since it can be fabricated with the use of locally available materials, its costs can further be reduced to make it affordable to rural families.

Protos has initially been used and tested in 150 locations (private homes and restaurants) on Leyte Island.

Last April, this writer and other Filipino and German journalists witnessed the viability of the stoves as these were being used by Leyte families that were involved in their pilot-testing.

Dr. Paciencia Po-Milan, LSU president, said that Protos may be commercially available by early 2007.

Across the country, other inventors and institutions have designed similarly environment-friendly stoves.

One is the "Kalan Kalikasan" crafted by Dan Rodriguez and Lito Larino of Calamba City.

They described their creation thus: "The sides are closed. Fire and heat cannot escape from the steel cylinder and therefore energy produced by the fuel is not wasted."

The stove uses for fuel mostly coconut shells and husks.

Rodriguez and Larino further reported: "The stove had been tested to cook 40 pieces of suman in one setting. It is good also for cooking corn on the cob and mani for commercial purposes. Good also for heating bathwater and preparing food for village wedding."

Others that have developed viable stoves are the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) and Central Philippines University (CPU) in Iloilo City.