Rice hull-fueled stove saves money, LPG, forests

The cold or so-called "brrr" months are here.

And expect the expenses of households on fuel – whether liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or firewood – to increase. This is because many people boil their water for a hot bath.

But one need not use expensive LPG to boil water or even cook one’s food.

One can turn to the now popular Maligaya rice hull (MRH) stove developed by the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice).

Reason is, this award-winning, environment-friendly stove only uses rice hull ("ipa"), a farm waste.

An easy-to-fabricate MRH stove made of G.I. sheet costs P500 while that made of stainless material costs P1,000.

Only one kilogram of rice hull is needed per cooking.

The light stove continuously burns for 28 minutes, enough to cook rice and vegetable viand for a household of five members.

PhilRice, currently headed by Executive Director Leocadio S. Sebastian, has signed 40 memorandum of agreements (MOA) with entrepreneurs for the manufacture of the stove.

To date, PhilRice’s Dr. Eulito Bautista told The STAR, thousands of MRH stoves have been fabricated in various parts of the country. The device has won a top prize under the United Nations-Food and Agriculture Organization (UN–FAO) Clean Technologies. – Rudy A. Fernandez