Filament Engineering Ltd (FEL), a local engineering firm, has launched environmentally friendly clean cooking stoves for rural people to replace their conventional stoves that use biomass which mainly comes from fuelwood.This firm has launched the product with the brand mane “muspana” with the financial support of the World Bank and USAID which comes through state-owned IDCOL, a financing company.
Addressing a press conference at Jatiya Press Club on Tuesday, CEO of FEL Ataur Rahman informed that they have obtained about $164,000 as technical support from Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a global body for promotion of such environment-friendly cooking stoves.
Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA) member and Power Ministry’s joint secretary Siddique Zobair and USAID official Sher Khan were also present at the press conference.
Ataur said the muspana cooking stove was made with proper engineering design which is 28 percent more efficient than the conventional one. “This cooking stove will save 20-25 minutes in the cooking times and will reduce 70-80 percent black carbon emission.”
He also claimed that finally the muspana cooking stove will save Tk 260-375 from the monthly fuel expense. The price of each muspana cookstove is Tk 2500.
The FEL official also informed that presently they are now producing about 500 cooking stoves a month, with a target to increase it to 5000 per month by 2016.
It was said in the press conference that every year about 50,000 people die because of household air pollution of whom most are women and children. This clean cooking stove will reduce the number of deaths, said the officials.
In Bangladesh, 84% of households are using fuelwood for cooking. Burning solid biomass is inefficient at converting energy to heat for cooking, and releases a toxic mix of health damaging pollutants that contribute to climate change at regional and global levels.
At present, about 30 million people are using conventional cookstoves. The government announced an action plant to replace this with improved clean cookstoves (ICS) by 2030.
