support for plant oil stove development based on an existing prototype

Greetings, I am located in the US and part of a small team of volunteers working on a humanitarian project in NW Haiti called Haiti Biodiesel. We are working specifically with Jatropha and have been to NW Haiti and done some of the initial work to help get the process jump started for planting and growing more and better Jatropha. We also did initial testing as well with Jatropha oil for lamps and for the making of biodiesel. This has gone well and we are very interested in a plant oil stove that could work well in an undeveloped area like NW Haiti so they could use raw Jatropha oil for cooking. We may have or be able to acquire funding assistance for your project, but we would need more details on the current status of your project. Please provide an overview of your project and answers to these questions if you are able. Is your prototype a fully functioning plant oil stove? Does it function well and is it simple and safe to use? Could your current stove be easily operated by a first time user that had no experience with this sort of product? Does it require any other fuels for ignition of the raw plant oil? I look forward to hearing back from you and establishing some further dialog. Thanks. Best Regards - Joe Foss / Haiti Biodiesel

My name is P.Mukundan and our Organization Servals Automation Pvt Ltd Chennai (India) has made a lot of progress in Developing a plant oil stove and lamps. We are using Straight vegetable oil. You can find more details from our blog http:\\servalsgroup.blogspot.com

We are willing to work with like minded organizations to take our proposal to places like Haiti which will benifit the needy

Rgds

Mukundan

What do the people in these areas currently use for fuel for their stoves? Is their current fuel source mined or grown? Is the plant oil less energy intensive to recover and refine than their current fuel source? does the current fuel source require more or less intensive infrastructure to support recovery,refinement, and distribution?

Greetings, If by these areas you mean NW Haiti, for the most part they do not use liquid fuel for stoves at all. They don't even have stoves. NW Haiti much like most of Haiti is very rural and primitive and most cooking is done using charcoal made of course from somewhat scarce wood cut from few remaining trees. Hence the huge problem of 98% deforestation resulting in massive flooding and erosion during the rainy seasons. Plant oil stoves in this environment could solve a number of serious environmental and ecological problems, but there are huge hurdles to overcome. A plant oil stove must be very easy to use and very affordable in order to be accepted by this society. Jatropha oil is just beginning to be recognized in Haiti as a viable natural resource that could be put to use by the people. The current fuel source is trees that are hand cut and burned in a pile and then oxygen starved by putting dirt on the fire at the right time. This charcoal fuel is brought to market on donkeys so that is the infrastructure that you speak of I guess. Needless to say there is a huge amount of development work to be done in Haiti as I imagine there is in many more primitive societies. Joe Foss / project manager - biodiesel / Haiti Biodiesel

I would say. How do you plan to compete with a market where the fuel source is essentially free, with some minimal unskilled labor. Plant oils derive very little fuel from huge amounts of plant tissues grown. Plus you will need large agricultural facilities to grow and harvest the plants. then you need production facilities for manufacturing and processing the oil. Finally, you need distribution and storage. All these require some semi-skilled to skilled labor forces. However, economy of scale can make these processes more cost efficient, but still all cost. Compare this to a unskilled rural villager walking out into the forest and cutting down some trees, carbonizing the wood, and hauling that to town in a donkey cart.