Efficient cooking stoves (Ghana, China)

Ghana is the largest per capita consumer of charcoal in West Africa. Cooking with charcoal contributes to carbon dioxide emissions and indoor air pollution. Many Ghanaians cannot afford to purchase a gas stove for their homes, making the switch to cleaner energy difficult.

Toyola manufactures and sells energy efficient cook stoves in urban and rural Ghana. The Toyola stove functions much the same as the traditional stove, making it a practical and cleaner alternative. The stoves use standard charcoal but are 40% more efficient than the traditional stoves used in the region. This greatly reduces the amount of charcoal needed to cook, which also reduces carbon dioxide emissions and saves families' money. To date, Toyola has provided this cleaner energy product to 35,000 households, offset 15,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and employed over 200 employees

Nearly all rural households in Western China rely on wood burning stoves, coal stoves, or open fire for cooking and heating. With the rapid growth of the rural population and the increased demand for energy, fuel wood consumption has increased 12% every year for the past ten years. The continuous increase in demand for and reliance on fuel wood has increased deforestation and open fire cooking. Moreover, cooking on old poorly designed wood and coal stoves contributes to in-door air pollution, which has had negative health effects on rural populations.

Kunming Rongxia is a designer and manufacturer of highly efficient biomass stoves in Kunming, China. “Juhong” brand stoves, which are manufactured by Kunming Rongxia, have won several competitions for design and efficiency and burn biomass 65-85% more efficiently than other stoves on the market in China. Some have been specially designed for use in high altitude, mountainous locations. The stoves are designed to burn wood, agricultural refuse, and dried dung.