Cook Stove Project
During a trip to Central America last year, members of Engineers Without Borders worked to improve living conditions for residents of Antigua, Guatemala. As the students worked to implement a sustainable house design, they found many Guatemalan families use a traditional three-stone fire stove for cooking. The current stove models are inefficient and prolonged use of the cook stoves may lead to significant health hazards, so students shifted some of their efforts to help optimize one of the most used kitchen appliances.
To apply various types of engineering principles from their current course work to the project, students formed a team comprised of mechanical, biomedical, and chemical engineering students in all stages of their undergraduate careers. Engineers Without Borders members Brian O'Neal, Lydia Beasley, Sam Fok, and Andrew Frangos are key leaders on the project.
The cook stove project provides the students with hands-on research and design experience. Design goals for the project include optimization of fuel burning efficiency for homeowners, minimization of cook stove production cost, and the reduction of cook stove emissions. Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering Professor Pratim Biswas is helping students perform a full series of quantitative tests on the cook stove. The group's first priority is to make these stoves safer for the families who use them every day.
"Traditional wood stoves emit tremendous amounts of micro-scale particles. These particles, composed of unburned wood, end up accumulating deep inside the lungs where they may lead to respiratory problems such as emphysema and bronchitis," says O'Neal. "By improving the efficiency of combustion within the stove, we hope to severely limit the quantity of particles produced."
The group will also work to minimize the amount of wood consumed by these stoves. Firewood is a large expense for Guatemalan families and deforestation continues to be a concern in the area.
Students want to implement their optimized design during another trip to Guatemala this summer.
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