Entries by Kim Still

Ten-fold Increase in Carbon Offset Cost Predicted

Prices of carbon credits used by companies to offset their emissions are currently low, due to an excess of supply built up over several years. According to recent research at the University of London, without the excess supply, prices would be around $15/tCO2e higher, compared to $3-5/tCO2e today. (tCO2e means tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, “carbon […]

Modeling Combustion: Math and Experience

Testing stoves means that many, many hours are spent watching the flames and pushing sticks of wood into the fire. We watch the real time emissions, water temperature, excess air, and temperatures in the combustion chamber on a computer screen as the testing continues. After hundreds of hours it becomes obvious that clean combustion has […]

Factoring Practicality into Cook Stoves

Would any manufactured stove that you know of work well for this woman? Maybe not? Working with local women to design cooking solutions is not hard when the team is located in the project area. It’s only natural to include the user in developing the product. But when wood stoves are created by foreigners, that […]

TCHAR- Using the char to simmer in a TLUD

In 2011, Dr. Paul Anderson described how the made charcoal in a TLUD could drop into a charcoal stove base and then be used to cook food. The top of the TLUD stove was removed after the charcoal was made and the pot was placed on the lower base to continue cooking. ARC used the […]

LPG: Cooking and Health

LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) is among the most important fuels for achieving clean cooking. Many countries are actively developing intervention programs. In a five year project starting in 2007, an Indonesian program converted over 50 million households cooking with kerosene to LPG. In 2016, India intensified their campaign providing free connections to LPG cylinders to […]

Outstanding Accomplishments

In addition to the recent Tibbetts Award, ASAT has just received EPA recognition for our success. ASAT (the for-profit arm of ARC) was awarded a 2021 EPA Administrator’s Small Business Program Award for Outstanding Accomplishments by a Small Business Contractor. This award recognizes ASAT’s contributions in Fiscal Year 2020 and our efforts to promote EPA priorities […]

International Support for Cook Stoves and Climate!

WASHINGTON, DC, April 22, 2021 — At the Leaders Summit on Climate hosted by President Biden, the U.S. government pledged to help countries achieve their climate ambitions through expanding access to clean cooking. “Providing clean energy to households is critical to achieving global climate and sustainable development goals,” said Helena Molin Valdés, Head of the Climate and Clean Air […]

How Do We Know?

When I went to UC Berkeley, studying psychology as an undergrad, lots of people made fun of Freud, Jung, and Adler who wrote (a lot) about divergent theories of what makes people tick. UCB liked to think of itself as a scientific institution, and facts are proven by statistical validity. Why should we believe speculation from the dear departed? I eventually agreed and I was […]

Detailed Observations At Work

Last week we shared some thoughts about the importance of gathering detailed data and making direct observations when testing stoves. Here’s a question we recently considered. Did a partial cover over the sticks entering the combustion chamber help reduce emissions in the CQC stove with Jet-Flame? No, not in this preliminary test series, although lots […]