Biochar-Producing Stoves to Benefit Climate, Health, and Soil

To those who live in the developed world, it may come as a surprise to learn that more than two billion people still cook and heat their homes with primitive stoves or open fires, burning wood, straw, dung, or coal.

These inefficient technologies emit air pollution that can harm respiratory and cardiac health and exacerbate global warming. People struggle to gather enough biomass fuels to meet their needs. And in many cases, the demand for wood accelerates deforestation.

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For nearly two decades a small group of researchers and development advocates has worked to improve household biomass energy technologies. Now concerns over global warming have added a new reason to accelerate the transition to cleaner biomass energy use in the developing world. New stove technologies can produce both heat for cooking and biochar for carbon sequestration and soil
building. Limited testing indicates that these stoves are much more efficient and emit less pollution

There are many challenges faced by stoves designers. These include:

1) Ensuring that biomass consumption is lowered.
2) Producing an affordable, durable stove that is easy to operate and maintain.
3) Producing a stove whose efficiency doesn’t decrease over time.
4) Understanding the potential added burdens of producing and distributing
biochar—especially for women.
5) Understanding behavioral and sociological barriers to new technologies.

Potential Benefits of Biochar-Producing Stoves

Health: Biochar-producing stoves are potentially much cleaner, with lower emissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and fine particles.

Climate: Biochar-producing stoves have lower greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide and methane) and black carbon emissions, create biochar that can be used to sequester carbon in soils, and reduce the use of fossil-fuel based fertilizers.

Deforestation: Biochar-producing stoves use less fuel, can use a wider variety of fuels, and can replace inefficient charcoal production technologies.

Soils: Biochar-producing stoves create biochar that sequesters carbon in soils, may in some cases reduce emissions of nitrous oxide (a powerful greenhouse gas) from soils, improves fertility, and increases productivity in degraded soils.

Income Generation: Biochar-producing stoves can accommodate many forms of agricultural residues—some without further treatment. Collecting this residue is another income generating opportunity not presently available for most other stoves since they cannot utilize that type of fuel.

The Status of Biochar-Producing Stove Technology

A number of researchers and programs world wide are devoted to producing efficient and cost-effective biochar-producing stoves, however, as yet there has been very little in the way of funding for these projects. Below is a description of some of the designs and programs that are in operation.