SRE Clean Cookstove Featured in UN Foundation November 2011 Newsletter

SRE's Mayon Turbo Stove (MTS) is featured in the "Partner Spotlight" of the November 2011 issue of the UN Foundation's Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC) newsletter. The write-up is authored by SRE President Perla Manapol, highlighting the attributes of the MTS, including: uses non-wood and virtually cost-free fuel such as rice hulls, corn cobs, and nutshells; clean-burning; portable; durable (made of 16-gauge steel, lasts 3.5 to 4 years); affordable (costs about US$20); cuts cooking time by half. In addition, replicability is made easy in that there are no copyright restrictions.

To read the item, log on to: cleancookstoves.org/resources/newsletter (November 10, 2011 issue, "Partner Spotlight").

Please note: The e-mail contact listed at the end of the article should read:
pmanapol@hotmail.com Other e-mail is: firlatot@yahoo.com

The Mayon Cookstove "in Action"

For those of you who want to see the Mayon Turbo Stove (MTS) in action - at a demo carried out by SRE partners BOHOL SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF - log on to YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A64MGocYpuw

Demo of MTS at Bohol School for the Deaf

MTS Now in Bohol

Through the Elena Tan Foundation, the Mayon Turbo Stove project has been successfully replicated in Bohol. In partnership with the Bohol School for the Deaf (through its director, ex-Peace Corps Volunteer Dennis Drake), the MTS is now fabricated at the school's metal fabrication plant. The prototype model was provided by the St. Paul University Philippines SPUP's MTS fabrication facility.

SRE President Perla Manapol hails this latest development - the first replication in the Eastern Visayas region - as "yet another big step toward our goal of creating a Philippine Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (PACC)." Already, there are expressions of interest from neighboring provinces of Samar and Negros Oriental.

The attached photos show the presentation by Dennis Drake (along with one of the working students, the "master welder") of the first 15 units fabricated by the school, and a demonstration of the model unit during a visit by Ambassador Bienvenido Tan, Jr.

SPUP Stove Fabrication Shop

SRE partner SPUP demonstrates to visitors how units of the Mayon Turbo Stove (MTS) are fabricated at its on-campus fabrication shop.

SRE and Partner SPUP

The accompanying photos show SPUP activities related to the Clean Cookstove project.

SRE Partners with St. Paul University Philippines in Clean Cookstoves Project

To jump-start its Clean Cookstove project, SRE has teamed up with St. Paul University Philippines (SPUP), http://www.spup.edu.ph/, the "mother" university of the St. Paul university system, based in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan Province. Fortuitously, this region in northern Philippines has abundant but abandoned rice hulls, corn cobs, and peanut shells. SPUP President, Sister Remedios Junio, SPC, is a well-known environmentalist who is credited with transforming the SPUP 18-acre campus into a veritable "botanical garden where everything is organic and recycled." SPUP's Eco-Center, Community Development Center (CDC), and College of Nursing are actively engaged in the project: The Eco-Center in overseeing stove fabrication and quality control at SPUP's on-campus shop, CDC through its numerous "adopted communities," and the the nursing students in gathering health data related to indoor pollution.

Through a donation from a Philippine foundation, SPUP has begun fabrication of 100 units, to be distributed and sold (on an installment basis) to 100 households in one of its adopted communities. (Note: Residents in this village are subjected to severe flooding during the rainy season, making the portability of the MTS a much-needed remedy.) Proceeds will be plowed back to fabricating additional units especially as demand is already running into more than 1,000 units. Additional funding is being sought to meet this demand, especially as the price of cooking gas continues to rise. (Orders for multiple units are also made by businesses such as restaurants, bakeries, and food-processing.)

The accompanying photos show mountains of rice hulls and corn cobs being burned just outside Tuguegarao with the attendant smoke and pollution - a very common sight throughout the country.

SRE and SPUP are proud to be partners in helping to promote a cooking mechanism that is (1) clean-burning; (2) fuelled by abandoned biomass instead of wood-sourced fuel; (3) portable, and, above all, is (4) affordable. As our project motto goes, A HAPPY, HEALTHY YOU, AND MOTHER EARTH!

Photos of MTS "In Action"

SRE an Implementer in Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

SRE, through its clean-burning Mayon Turbo Stove (MTS) that is fuelled by rice hulls, corn cobs, nutshells, or woodchips, is now an Implementer in the recently-launched Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC). As an Implementer, SRE will be working closely with the UN Foundation in promoting the use of the MTS not only in the Philippines and in Liberia, but also in other countries.

The accompanying photos show the MTS "in action," fuelled by rice hulls, corn cobs, and peanut shells.

Mayon Turbo Stove Back to Front Burner

SRE is renewing efforts to expand its clean cookstove activities with the Mayon Turbo Stove (MTS) that won SRE an award in the 2006 World Bank Development Marketplace Competition in Manila. SRE is participating in the recently-launched Clean Cookstove Alliance, an initiative that was announced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative forum in late September.

In 2009, SRE introduced the Mayon Turbo Stove in Liberia as part of SRE's training program on the integrated processing of coconuts, under the USAID-funded Liberia Community Infrastructure Program (LCIP).

"We needed a portable, fast-lighting, clean-burning stove to speed up our sessions, particularly those involving cooking," explained SRE President Perla Manapol. "The MTS was the perfect solution," adding that despite the lack of rice hulls, "there were plenty of abandoned woodchips and nutshells that proved to be ideal fuels." More important, local fabricators were able to "clone" the MTS that - during a "cookstove contest" - easily out-performed the traditional, charcoal-fuelled cookstove.

SRE's plans include expanding the MTS reach not only in the Philippines and in Liberia, but also in other countries without access to clean cooking mechanisms.

The Mayon Turbo Stove was first introduced in the Philippines by the non-profit organization, REAP-Canada.

Green Charcoal-makers

Cody and Perla show off charcoal briquettes made out of leaves, twigs, and rice hulls at the KASAMA Bakhawan Eco-Park charcoal-producing shop.

"Green Charcoal" from Leaves, Twigs, Rice Hulls

Leaves as Feedstock

SRE and "Green Charcoal"

After demonstrating how to make high-efficiency charcoal out of coconut shells, SRE realized that in many rural areas where coconuts are not available, there are other, plentiful feedstock that can be made into equally high-efficiency, clean-burning charcoal: leaves, twigs, rice hulls.

To this end, SRE is currently working with an Aklan-based organization, KALIBO SAVE THE MANGROVES FOUNDATION (KASAMA), that pioneered the conversion of mangrove cuttings into high-efficiency charcoal. The feedstock source has been expanded to include leaves, twigs, and rice hulls. These are first carbonized, then mixed with cassava or corn starch as binder, molded into briquettes, and dried. In a test-run, briquettes burn three times longer than the traditional wood charcoal, and twice longer than the cocoshell charcoal. Smokeless, too. Most important, all the processing is done manually.

SRE and KASAMA collaborated in bringing to Aklan an American volunteer, Mr. Cody McMillian, a Business/Enterprise Development Graduate of Baylor University (Waco, Texas), to work primarily on the modifications of the manually-operated equipment. Cody also helps to develop the business model, particularly on marketing. He also gives presentations to schools and universities, as well as to environment-focused groups and organizations.

This "green charcoal" initiative is designed for replication in tropical countries where deforestation is rampant.

Coconut Sugar

SRE Now into Coconut Sugar

SRE is now collaborating with a California-based SME, Coconut World, (http://www.coconutworld.biz/) to market coconut sugar in health food stores in the U.S.

The coco sugar is sourced from production facilities under the auspices of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) in the Visayas (Aklan) and Mindanao (Cotabato). These facilities provide livelihood for several coconut farmers and their families. Majority of the workers are women.

Coconut sugar has a glycemic index (GI) of 35, and sucrose content of 80 - making it an excellent, healthy alternative to cane sugar. (And it tastes great!)

In addition, coco sugar comes from the sap of the flower of organically-grown coconut trees that is then processed with no preservatives and chemicals.

Liberia's First-ever Charcoal from Coconut Shells

SRE Helps Liberians To Produce First-ever Charcoal from Coconut Shells