Energy is an essential ingredient in meeting the basic needs of mankind and in stimulating and supporting economic growth and rising standard of living. From time immemorial, mankind has depended on energy for survival and development. In early years of mankind existence, the cooking of food was not known.

During that time, people ate food in the condition in which they found it. As man discovered fire, they found that the fire could be controlled and be used to cook food. Eating cooked food became the culture of civilization of mankind. For millions of years, wood was the only fuel known to man for cooking, and heating and driving early steam engines.

This important discovery revolutionized scientific thinking which led to the discovery of other sources of energy we see today. However, in spite of worldwide research and development advancements, unfortunately, the situation in developing countries has not changed significantly where the majority still depend on biomass based fuels in terms of firewood, agricultural residues and charcoal.

This dependence has handicapped them to subsistence existence. Observations across developing countries reveal that firewood is still the major source of energy for cooking and other heat related uses. Many attempts have been made to improve one of its most inefficient uses, namely cooking. One of the ways to do this has been by replacing the traditional ‘three-stones’ technique for cooking by improved cookstoves.

Attachments:

Improved institutional Wood Fuel Stove Production Manual

[Improved institutional Wood Fuel Stove Production Manual]

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