BioLite Home Stove is a cooking stove that cuts emissions by 95% while generating electricity off-the-grid.

Half of the planet still cooks with open, indoor, wood fires. The toxic smoke that they emit kills nearly two million people every year—twice as many people as malaria. Previous efforts to address indoor smoke with clean cook stoves have failed to achieve the smoke reductions necessary to protect health and have failed to catalyze consumer demand due to minimal functionality beyond that of a traditional open fire.

The BioLite Home Stove immediately reduces the time used for gathering wood or other solid fuels and the money spend on purchasing fuel to support daily cooking. Using half of the wood required for an open fire, each stove saves several tons of firewood per year. Families gain access to electricity with stove use, providing a means for charging cell phones and LED lights. More broadly, the stove’s efficient combustion reduces deforestation in developing regions where 75% of harvested wood is burned as fuel and dramatically cuts global black carbon, CO2 and methane emissions. Each stove can save 1.5 tons of CO2 per year, equivalent to the impact an American family would have by investing in a hybrid car. By reducing smoke emissions by more than 95%, the stove also has significant health benefits.

BioLite is capable of reducing indoor smoke while cutting fuel use in half and providing largely off-grid users with the ability to charge cell phones and LED lights. The stoves create economic incentive for purchase and continued use, ensuring sustainable delivery of its health and environmental benefits.

Designed by Jonathan Cedar and Alec Drummond (United States of America), 2010

Source: indexaward.dk

Biolite Homestove from INDEX: Design to Improve Life on Vimeo.