The plant oil stove (Philippines)

The plant oil stove is an initiative of Bosch and Siemens Home Appliances Group in collaboration with the Bellagio Forum. The ‘Protos’ technology allows the use of any type of available plant oil as cooking fuel, and has been designed primarily for communities in low income countries who still rely on expensive, hazardous and environmentally harmful cooking fuels.

Protos is considered to produce positive ecological, economic, health, and social benefits. It helps reduce deforestation, thereby preventing land erosion, desertification and flooding. It is also CO2-neutral. It helps create local employment and income opportunities through local production of plant oil, the stove, individual parts as well as local maintenance of the stove. It costs less to operate compared to kerosene, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), charcoal or wood, and it reduces dependency on fossil fuel imports. It has no hazardous emissions, and no risk of explosion.

In the period of 2004 to 2006, the plant oil stoves were tested in 100 households on the islands of Leyte and Samar in the Philippines. Eight hundred stoves have been sold since the end of the test period. At the same time, a village cooperative was set up to produce the plant oil stoves and the oil used to operate them. They have the capacity to manufacture 1,500 stoves per year. This arrangement accords with Bosch and Siemens’ strategy of producing the Protos stove locally. Other projects are being planned in India, Indonesia, South Africa and Tanzania.