Congratulations!
"Who would ever think that a routine National Service Scheme (NSS) visit to a village could trigger an innovative idea .... "
Congratulations to Mayur. Expect more and more NSS, IIT Kharagpur volunteers to come up with solutions that improves the quality of lives of the masses they interact with. The following is published in SPOTLIGHT section of Times of India (Link). Mayur is now a third-year student of chemical engineering at IIT-Kharagpur. He was chosen for his model of a cheap, smokeless cooking stove at the six-day conference of young environmental envoys held at Leverkusen near Cologne, Germany. The event was organized by Bayer Group in coordination with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and was participated by students, activists, researchers and journalists from 18 developing countries. Now the Times of India report.
Congratulations to Mayur. Expect more and more NSS, IIT Kharagpur volunteers to come up with solutions that improves the quality of lives of the masses they interact with. The following is published in SPOTLIGHT section of Times of India (Link). Mayur is now a third-year student of chemical engineering at IIT-Kharagpur. He was chosen for his model of a cheap, smokeless cooking stove at the six-day conference of young environmental envoys held at Leverkusen near Cologne, Germany. The event was organized by Bayer Group in coordination with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and was participated by students, activists, researchers and journalists from 18 developing countries. Now the Times of India report.
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SPOTLIGHT
Up in smoke
The Bayer Young Environmental Envoy 2011,an environment summit in Germany,saw the participation of two youngsters from India. Aaditi Isaac catches up with one of them.
Who would ever think that a routine National Service Scheme (NSS) visit to a village could trigger an innovative idea Mayur Rastogi,a third-year student of the department of chemical engineering at IIT Kharagpur,got an innovative idea of making a smokeless gas stove (also called high performance cooking stove) while on an NSS trip to a village. Through the innovation,he aims to improve the quality of life of people by providing them with cheap,highly efficient and smokeless stoves that would reduce deforestation and their exposure to indoor air pollution.
Up in smoke
The Bayer Young Environmental Envoy 2011,an environment summit in Germany,saw the participation of two youngsters from India. Aaditi Isaac catches up with one of them.
Who would ever think that a routine National Service Scheme (NSS) visit to a village could trigger an innovative idea Mayur Rastogi,a third-year student of the department of chemical engineering at IIT Kharagpur,got an innovative idea of making a smokeless gas stove (also called high performance cooking stove) while on an NSS trip to a village. Through the innovation,he aims to improve the quality of life of people by providing them with cheap,highly efficient and smokeless stoves that would reduce deforestation and their exposure to indoor air pollution.
When I went to the village,I saw women preparing food on traditional chulhas,using wood.When they cooked food on the chulha,it used a lot of wood and produced smoke,which is not good for health.It got me thinking,and under my professors guidance I did my research, says Rastogi.
It took Rastogi one and a half years to make an efficient design.Unlike the chulha,the stove gives high efficiency and is simple to use.While designing the stove,I used different materials like metal sheet,which was rolled and fabricated in a few hours.It has pipes,and is a doublewalled cylinder with a removable conical cap over it.The wood or biomass is fed into the cylinder and the combustible gas is burnt in the cone.The utensils have to be kept above the cone.An important factor,was the height of the stove.Since women in the villages do not stand while cooking food,I designed the stove with its height between the ankle and the knee, informs Rastogi.
Apart from wood,he feels that the stove has potential to run equally well on agricultural residues like rice husk.I studied the properties of fuel combustion and experimented with wood as fuel and through a process called gasification (by which organic or fossil-based materials rich in carbon are changed into a gaseous state emitting carbon monoxide,methane,etc),we were able to change the colour of the flame from the usual red-orange to a blue with no visible smoke, he adds.
For testing the stove,Rastogi took it to a cycle mechanic near the campus and the hostel guards home.After some persuasion,families of the cycle mechanic and the hostel guard ultimately gave him a chance to test his invention.
I showed them how to use the stove.The women in the houses boiled water and made rotis and appreciated that there was no smoke emanating from it.
Talking about his future plans,Rastogi says that he would like to make the stove more efficient and take it to the masses.
As the recipient of the Bayer Young Environmental Envoy 2011 competition,Rastogi along with another participant Tanvi Gadgil from Pune went to Germany for a week-long field trip,which gave them a first-hand experience of how sustainable environmental practices are pursued jointly by the people,the government and the industry.
> aaditi.isaac
@timesgroup.com
Smokeless gas stove that would reduce deforestation and indoor air pollution
Has the potential to run equally well on agricultural residues like rice husk
Height of the stove is best suited for villages where women prefer to be seated while cooking
Height of the stove is best suited for villages where women prefer to be seated while cooking
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