Designing a low-cost electricity-generating cooking stove for volume

In the year 2014, three billion people still cook on an open fire. The smoke from cooking and kerosene lamps used for lighting cause over four million premature deaths per year. Clean stoves have been about for more than 50 years. However, outside China uptake is only 8%. Compare this with mobile phone use in poor rural areas, from zero in 2007 to well over 50% use today. This book describes one solution to the problem; a cooking stove that also generates electricity. It uses modern design processes that start with user requirements, convert these into a functional specification, which was tested in villages in Africa and on the Indian sub-continent. One technical solution is described in detail, thermoacoustics, that can convert heat from burning wood into sound with no moving parts and then the sound is converted to electricity using a linear alternator. Other solutions are briefly described alongside ideas to make any stove more affordable by including electrical generation. The book is aimed at researchers, NGO¿s and other people interested in poverty alleviation through the application of appropriate technology and wanting to make clean cookstoves as sexy as the mobile.