ARC just received a grant to hire full time assistance for the Regional Testing and Knowledge Centers (RTKC). Many of the RTKCs use our emission equipment. Jaden has just returned from Tanzania where she was setting up a new lab and Travis is going to Mozambique soon to do the same thing. Over 100 emission boxes have been sold worldwide.
It’s great to have a dedicated person available so anyone with a problem can get immediate help. The new hire will learn by testing every day, crunching the numbers with Jaden’s Python software, cleaning the equipment, calibrating it, etc. Sam and Jaden are here to help with complicated problems.
Maybe Travis, Kim and I can help with iterative development of improved stoves?
What a great year!
https://aprovecho.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ethiopia_lab.png454600Kim Stillhttps://aprovecho.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Aprovecho-Logo.pngKim Still2025-09-25 14:56:522025-09-26 09:29:49What a Great Year!
A major accomplishment of the past few years has been the creation of thirty Regional Testing and Knowledge Centers (RTKCs). Many of these facilities rely on emissions equipment and training from Aprovecho Research Center. They are usually created as an addition to a university in a developing country, and were initially funded by large development organizations such as the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.
Once a month we’re turning our newsletter over to Sam Bentson, to tell you more about their activities:
Hello to everyone at the Regional Knowledge and Testing Centers (RTKCs), and to our newsletter readers, from Sam Bentson, General Manager at Aprovecho!
Sam was recently in Ghana and Senegal and then visited
the Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo de Procesos Químicos (CPC) in La
Paz, Bolivia helping with stove testing and their LEMS emission hood. La Paz has the highest elevation of any
government city in the world at an altitude of 3,650m!
The atmospheric pressure at CPC in La Paz is 20Hg. Our
lab in Oregon is 241 meters above sea level where the atmospheric pressure is 30Hg.
Sam and the CPC staff determined that at their high elevation, and with the
voltage applied to the Jet-Flame motor increased to 8V, the mass flow in the
Jet-Flame was 82% of the mass flow measured at the ARC lab.
Altitude had a big effect on boiling water and on the Jet-Flame!
CPC in La Paz, Bolivia from left to right: Libertad Mariana Casanova Velasquez, Dalia A. Borja, Sam Bentson, Jazmin Gidari Ruiz Mayta, and Karen Fabiana Paz Quispe
When Sam returned home, he started thinking about keeping in touch with all
of his friends at the RTKCs and to share reports of activities. We are starting
with CPC and highly recommend that anyone interested in doing research or a
stove project make use of this wonderful resource in Bolivia!
