ARC’s Beloved Visitor Shovana Maharjan Completes Three-Month Internship and Returns to Nepal

Hello readers! My name is Shovana Maharjan and I work as laboratory officer at the Regional Cookstove Testing and Knowledge Centre (RTKC) in Kathmandu, Nepal. I have completed three months of internship at Aprovecho Research Centre (ARC), beginning on January 15th to April 15, 2014. During this period I have learned to operate the Laboratory Emissions Monitoring System (LEMS) in a more precise and accurate way. Some of the other major learnings during my stay at ARC were as follows:

1. Top Lit Up Draft (TLUD) stove testing
2. Charcoal stove testing
3. Research and development of TLUD stove testing protocol
4. Operating Oxygen Bomb Calorimeter to accurately quantify caloric mass of biofuel
5. Comparing charcoal/wood separation method vs. grinding method for the determination of efficiency in TLUDs
6. Comparison of calorific values of fuel obtained from separation method and grinding method
7. Comparison of effectiveness of drying bomb calorimeter biofuel pellets in oven vs desiccator
8. Troubleshooting and technical research of LEMS and Indoor Air Pollution Meter (IAPM)
9. Calibration of LEMS and IAP meter sensor boxes
10. Stove design and safety evaluation

I am very thankful to ARC for granting me this opportunity to come to their lab and help me to learn so much that I can bring back with me to the RTKC in Nepal. I had a very productive and great time during this period and wish to thank all ARC members for their cooperation and motivation.
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We were very happy to have Shovana visit our laboratory and we greatly enjoyed her company while researching and testing stoves along our side. She is a very hard and dedicated worker and an excellent laboratory technician who we’re proud to see her return to Nepal and continue cooperating with their RTKC in future stove testing, design and dissemination.