World's 1st plant oil-fueled stove now commercialized

BAYBAY CITY, Leyte, Philippines - The world’s first plant oil-fueled stove is now being commercialized on Leyte Island and adjoining places.

Named Protos, the cooking device was developed by a German firm, BSH Bosch and Siemens Hausgerate GmbH, in collaboration with research partners, among them the Visayas State University (VSU) in this seaside city situated 120 kilometers southwest of Leyte’s capital city of Tacloban.

Protos has been envisioned to help solve energy problems in cooking; eliminate health problems associated with open fires, especially for women and children; reduce deforestation for firewood or charcoal; promote effective cooking systems that use renewable fuels; and protect biodiversity.

Its cheap fuel sources are used vegetable oil from restaurants and diverse plant oils such as those of coconut, jatropha, peanut, cotton seeds, and others.

Protos is not yet a final product and the observations and suggestions of those using it are being addressed.

These include the noise it creates during cooking, cost of some of the stove’s parts available locally, and refinement of the used vegetable oil as fuel.

VSU said Protos is turning out to be the most environment-friendly stove because it uses plant oil, which is renewable, as fuel; it reduces dependency on fossil fuel imports; and it can reduce deforestation by substituting wood as fuel for cooking.

Health-wise, it has no hazardous emission and it protects the family’s health owing to its very low greenhouse gases emission.

Carbon dioxide emissions of Protos is more than 10 times lower than those of liquefied petroleum gas and kerosene, and almost 70 times lower than those of wood and charcoal.

A family of four or five consumes only two liters per week or about 100 liters per year of used vegetable oil to operate the stove.

“Local production of plant oil and stove parts can also create employment opportunities in the rural areas,” VSU added. Finally, Protos cooks faster owing to its high power output.