Central Data Catalog

Background: Nearly half of the world’s population, about 3 billion people, uses solid fuels for cooking and heating, which leads to
extremely high levels of household air pollution (HAP). HAP is identified as a leading risk factor for morbidity and mortality, especially
among women and children. Many stove manufacturers have developed alternative cookstoves (ACSs) that are aimed at reducing
emissions. Our objective was to test multiple ACSs in real world settings. Method: We tested a traditional clay chulha cook stove (TCS) and
five commercially available ACSs, including both natural draft stoves (Greenway Smart Stove, Envirofit PCS-1) and force draft stoves
(BioLite HomeStove, Philips Wood Stove, andEco-Chula), in a test kitchen in a rural village of Pune district of Maharashtra state in western
India. Each stove was operated by same user for 1 hour per day for 12 days under controlled conditions. We measured indoor particulate
matter less than 2.5 µm (PM ) and carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations, fuel consumption and cookstove efficiency. Compared 2.5 Results:
to the TCS, the ACSs had significant reductions in PM and CO concentrations (Envirofit PCS1 (22%, 16%), and Greenway (24%, 42%), 2.5
BioLite (40%, 35%), Philips (66%, 55%) and Eco-ChulaEco-Chula (61%, 42%)), which persisted even after normalization for fuel
consumption. The concentrations of PM and CO were lower when force draft stoves were used, as compared to natural draft stoves. 2.5
Furthermore, Philips (25.3%) and Eco-Chula (16.9%) exhibited higher cooking efficiency than the TCS. Overall, Philips ACS indicated the
best combination of lower pollutant concentrations and higher efficiency throughout the trial. Conclusion: Despite significant reductions
in concentrations of emissions among the ACSs tested, all stoves failed to achieve the safe PM limits set by World Health Organization 2.5
(WHO). The top-performing ACS (Philips; 277 µg/m ) produced PM concentrations that were 11x greater than the level set by the WHO.