Learn about the various projects each of our partners are undertaking
Duke University
TRACtion -Designing and evaluating behavior change interventions to improve the adoption and use of improved cookstoves
TRAction seeks to explain household behavior surrounding investment in and use of improved cookstoves (ICS). Examining various aspects of cookstove adoption behavior, the TRAction framework aims to update and refine common theories of behavior change and derive testable predictions of which types of interventions can increase the adoption and use of ICS.
PFIRST – Can improved household energy technologies deliver health, livelihood, environmental, and climate benefits?
The three-fold benefits of improved cookstoves, including increased fuel collection time-savings, reduced local environmental degradation, and decreased black carbon emissions, have been widely cited, however the evidence base for these claims is thin.National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
NIEHS efforts on Cookstove and Indoor Health
Over the past eight years, NIEHS has invested an estimated $9 million in research related to cookstoves and their health effects, primarily in community-based intervention studies in Guatemala, Ecuador, Nepal, Pakistan, Ghana, and the U.S. with study endpoints including lower respiratory infection (LRI) and tuberculosis in children, low birth weight, COPD, and other respiratory conditions in adult women. NIEHS seeks to expand the geographic reach of its studies and research training programs, as well as evaluate the effectiveness of new cookstove technologies.
NTP Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds Research: Cookstove Activities
The WHO Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health Sciences includes indoor air pollution associated with biomass burning as one of the five focus areas of environmental health concern. Global Environmental Health, including a focus on cookstoves and indoor air pollution, is identified as a priority research area for NIEHS in the 2012-2017 strategic plan.
North Carolina State University
In Home Emission Testing of Baseline and Alternative Cookstove Technologies in Malawi: Particulate Matter Emission Factors and Characterization
The goal of this study is to provide detailed emissions measurements for baseline and replacement stove technologies in use by communities taking part in two independent stove intervention programs in rural Malawi: the Cooking and Pneumonia Study (CAPS) being led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and the carbon-finance-funded Chitetezo Mbaula intervention being conducted by the NGO Concern Universal (CU).
From the Kitchen to the Clouds: Research and Teaching on the Emission and Evolution of Aerosols from Household Energy Use by the Global Poor
The fundamental question addressed in the proposed work is: What are the net climate and air pollution impacts of current and potential future sources of household cooking and heating energy? Primitive fuel use for household energy provision has massive impacts on human health and the global climate. Dr. Grieshop proposes a research and teaching program that lies at the nexus of an urgent global health problem and fundamental questions being tackled by engineers and atmospheric scientists. The research will build a multi-scale understanding of the impacts of primitive household energy use by focusing on the complex emissions and aging processes biomass burning aerosols undergo and quantifying the potential benefits associated with new technologies. Associated integrated educational activities will expose students to international environmental issues through hands-on activities and data collection.
Development of a Second-Generation System for In-Use Cookstove Emission Testing
Primitive fuel use for household energy provision has massive impacts on human health and the global climate. I propose a research program that lies at the nexus of an urgent global health problem and fundamental questions being tackled by atmospheric scientists. We will build a comprehensive and multi-scale understanding of the impacts of primitive household energy use, the potential benefits associated with improved technology and the complex aging process that biomass burning aerosols undergo in the atmosphere. The fundamental question addressed in the proposed work is: What are the net climate and indoor and outdoor air pollution impacts of current and potential future sources of household cooking and heating energy?
Experimental Interventions to Facilitate Clean Cookstove Adoption, Promote Clean Indoor Air, and Mitigate Climate Change
This project has four broad objectives regarding feasible improvements to stoves design and dissemination: (1) to assess why different stove models are (or are not) adopted, (2) to experiment by varying stove price and information dissemination methods to determine the impact of these variables on stove adoption rates, (3) to measure in situ the impacts of stove adoption on indoor air pollution, outdoor air pollution, and climate-forcing, and 4) to model the impacts of widespread stove adoption on regional and global climate through a range of scenarios directly informed by field experiments. The project will be based in two Indian states: Karnataka (South India) and Himachal Pradesh (North India). India contains one of the largest concentrations of solid fuel -dependent households on the world.
RTI International
RTI Collaborative Efforts to Enhance Biomass Cookstove Design and Improve Health and the Environment
Improving performance of existing stoves through design and testing add-on device for Kenya Jiko (CDC) and India Envirofit stove (DoE) driving to Tier 4 Stove. Envirofit & CSU partnerships.
Monitoring and exposure characterization using MicroPEM. Refining / improving device for application for children and infants (BMGF). Field testing children’s MicroPEM in Malawi and Bangladesh (UK, BMGF)
Analyzing environmental health risk and biomass stove use in Sri Lanka.Field study evaluating emissions from common stove types and impact of chimney, with MicroPEM (RTI). Sri Lanka NIH & IDEA partnership.
Technical Advisory Committee for Cookstoves Standards (ISO / TC285). ANSI /ISO & Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves partnership.
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
The Health and Poverty effects of a Large-Scale Cookstove Initiative in Rwanda
The FUEL Lab at UNC-CH is involved in an impact evaluation of a for-profit renewable energy company in Rwanda that sells cooking energy in the form of fuel pellets and leases clean cookstoves to customers. Inyenyeri has a novel market-based strategy that has potential to be scaled country wide.
Evaluating Sustained Adoption of Inyenyeri’s Improved Stove and Fuel Initiative in Rwanda
The FUEL Lab at UNC-CH is involved in an impact evaluation of a for-profit renewable energy company in Rwanda that sells cooking energy in the form of fuel pellets and leases clean cookstoves to customers. Inyenyeri has a novel market-based strategy that has potential to be scaled country wide.
Household Energy Baseline Research in Malawi
The HAP and TB study is a community based case-control study that examines the role of household air pollution as a risk factor for tuberculosis. Our data collection involves a survey of women in the high density areas of Lilongwe. The survey includes modules on fuel and cooking choices, knowledge about the risks of burning biomass and traditional cooking technologies, cooked and uncooked food consumption, health and nutritional outcomes for women and children under 5, and socioeconomic and demographic variables. We improve upon past studies on HAP and TB by collecting data on exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate matter (PM2.5).
Environmental Protection Agency
Please visit the EPA’s website for more information on current projects.
