2. Introduction The awareness about adverse health impacts due to unclean combustion of biomass has increased with a need to take effective steps to improve indoor air quality in rural households by providing cleaner cooking options. With increasing concerns about climate change and outdoor air quality as well, it is no more considered sufficient to remove the smoke from the kitchen using a chimney. There is a widely felt need for providing biomass burning cook stoves with cleaner combustion at very low level of emissions and at affordable price.
3. Introduction (Cont…) In the meantime several innovative designs have reached the market with a promise to provide much cleaner combustion and high thermal efficiency. However, the cost of these stoves is quite high, which is limiting the clientele in the open market. Moreover, some of them use processed fuel, which raises additional requirement.
4. For Scaling Up Production A difficult challenge for the cook stove initiative is mass production. Any combination of the following options could be utilized to encourage scaling up production of improved cook stoves. Option 1: Performance-based advance subsidy. MNRE could provide performance-based advance subsidies. If a manufacturer or technology provider increases production of improved cook stoves by a certain percentage, then they would receive an advance subsidy payment from MNRE. Option 2: Production tax credit. MNRE and the partnership could implement production tax credits in order to support mass production.
5. Option 3 : Advance market commitment and government procurement. An advance market commitment from the government would ensure a market for manufacturers’ products. MNRE and/or another government partner could commit to purchasing a large number of stoves (perhaps one million) and then disseminate the stoves themselves through various existing government channels and programs. This advance market commitment would motivate manufacturers to scale up production, because they would have a guaranteed buyer.
6. Technical Aspects Any cook stoves initiative would need to address the technical needs of the program which can be categorized under two broad categories : (a) Research and development (R&D) covering fundamental as well as applied research and development of new products (b) Testing and Standards – addressing the issues related to testing protocols, setting up of testing facilities and development of standards for certification.
7. Delivery of Cook stoves Following are the recommendations for strategies to be adopted for delivery of stoves for program as a whole. For an improved cook stove initiative to be sustainable, commercialization must be encouraged. Market development is, in turn, integral to promoting commercialization. A widespread awareness campaign that leverages all forms of media on a massive scale, various government channels such as schools and health and social services institutions, village demonstrations, and word-of-mouth advertising among village families and is branded with a recognizable logo and celebrity endorsements would be the best strategy to develop the improved cook stove market.
8. Fuel Processing and Supply Following are the recommendations for the new initiative to take care of the crucial aspect of fuel supply : The cook stoves program must have a dual thrust, on technological improvement in stoves as well as establishment of an assured fuel supply chain. The latter is critical to large-scale dissemination of end-user devices with rural household applications. India has an immense variety of agro-based biomass residues. Transforming them into processed fuels for use with improved cook stoves is crucial to extracting the best performance – combustion efficiency and reduced emissions – from this initiative. Pelletizing agro-residues will be more suitable than briquetting, whose size and cost constrains its use in household applications.
9. Fuel Processing and Supply (Cont…) An extensive study on the availability of biomass residues, surveying type, quantity, seasonal variations, costs and suitability for pelletization is required, as existing data is quite old. Focused R&D is required for the development of small-scale biomass pelletizing machines for production of fuel pellets from available agro-residues, suitable for decentralized operation with a capacity of 100-200 kg/h and with low electricity requirement. Besides, standards need to be evolved for such machinery.
10. Phase I Detailed survey of biomass availability, present level utilization, cost etc. for selected regions in the country. Identifying appropriate pelletizing technology available in the country which could be disseminated directly or could be quickly upgraded, field testing of the technology and its up gradation with the help of technical expertise, if required. Phase II Facilitating design and development of new pelletizing machines and charcoal systems. Entrepreneur development and setting up commercially viable fuel processing units and supply chain. Field operation, monitoring and up gradation as per requirement.
11. Management of the Initiative The PPP needs to be established by an initiating agency, comprised of a network of stakeholders and led by a Governing Council. An administrative support group would be required to conduct administrative tasks to ensure smooth operation of the partnership, and an advisory board would provide guidance to the governing council.
12. Management of the Initiative (Cont…) It is suggested that the regional linkages for project implementation be worked out by the project management unit proposed above. Funding is required from various Government ministries and/or industry sources for the Awards Competition, technical (R&D, testing protocols and facilities) and dissemination (training, roll-out/subsidization, electronic, print and contact publicity and programmes) including fuel supply.
13. Testing and Standards Testing is a very important part of any cookstovesprogramme. In view of the development of several new designs in the recent past, the need for review of testing protocols and setting up new facilities has acquired great importance.
14. Testing and Standards(Cont…) The activities related to testing required to be carried out under the new initiative can be classified under five categories : Review of testing protocols, their standardization and identification of equipment which should be part of the testing facilities of various kinds. Developing performance standards for certification. Setting up the testing facilities of various kinds. Training of the personnel for testing in the lab and the field. Commissioning of the certification centres. Each of these is discussed in greater detail here.
15. Conclusion Thus a better running enterprise can be establish with help of different organized way of marketing. Enterprise can run in better way by concentrating on technology ,research and development, performance standards, demand generation, mass production and distribution channels, selection and training of retailers, financing, education of users, cook stove servicing, and evaluation. The roles of the stakeholders must be specified and clarified, perhaps as suggested earlier, so that they can successfully work together to achieve these key elements of success.
