What is Aprovecho Research Center?
For 29 years, Aprovecho Research Center (ARC) consultants have been designing and implementing improved biomass cooking and heating technologies in more than 60 countries worldwide. The Center was formally established in 1976, and is dedicated to researching, developing and disseminating clean cookstove technologies for meeting the basic needs of refugees, impoverished people, and communities in the developing world. For decades, ARC has been the world's leader in open source development of all aspects of improved cooking stoves.
Why Cleaner Cookstoves?
- Improved cooking stoves address at least 5 of the 8 United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals: [1] ending poverty and hunger; [2] gender equity; [3] child health; [4] maternal health; and [5] environmental sustainability.
- The primary source of smoke polluting the skies over Asia and accelerating glacial melting is from traditional cooking fires, Scientific American reports.
- In 2009, HRH Prince Charles presented the 2009 Ashden International Energy Champion Award to ARC for its groundbreaking achievements in creating affordable and reliable mass produced improved cook stoves.
Our Programs
Research & Development / Publications
 The Advanced Studies in Appropriate Technology (ASAT) Lab studies methods for designing, building, and disseminating cooking and heating technology that is both mass-produced and/or made from vernacular (locally available) low cost materials that can be found easily in the towns and villages where improved stoves are needed.
We develop educational books, videos, and other media using simple, easy to understand language to teach methods and principles for designing and disseminating improved cooking and heating stoves. Review the list of ARC publications availabe for download or visit the ARC Research Library for reports and other information relevant to the issues ARC strives to address.
Institutional Stove Project
 Our Mission is to lead the effort to fill the global need for an institutional size stove to serve the poorest of the poor in areas hit by natural disasters, in refugee and displaced person camps, and to serve children in schools and orphanages. The stove has an autoclave feature for sterilization of hospital instruments, and can be fueled by biomass briquettes. Read more.
International Stove Design Consulting & Training
 Our consultants travel to cities and villages around the world to provide technical assistance and training to NGOs and local groups developing and disseminating improved stove technology.
We have current and past projects in Mexico, Central America, South America, Africa, India, the Philippines and more.
Emissions Testing and Evaluation
 We operate a state of the art laboratory facility for testing stoves. Testing and reports on fuel use, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, and greenhouse gas emissions from a variety of improved cook stoves are available to projects, with examples here for download.
Portable in-field emissions testing equipment is also available for use in-country to monitor indoor air pollution. Read more about stove testing and this equipment.
StoveTec
 StoveTec was created in the fall of 2008 as a not-just-for-profit entity to act as the technology transfer recipient for the Aprovecho Research Center. ARC has worked for 30 years to design and build improved cook stoves and has completed over 100 projects in 60 countries. ARC designed StoveTec stoves with cooks to assure that cooks all over the world would love the stove.
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