Burning wood to power fridges
Project aims to bring high-tech device to developing world.
A consortium of UK universities hopes to bring affordable domestic appliances to rural areas of developing countries by developing a device that acts as a refrigerator, cooker and power generator all in one, powered by locally available biomass fuels such as wood.
Comments
Fantastic idea
Posted by: Edmund Ameko | May 14, 2007 09:21 PM
Won't burning more wood have a negative effect on global warming ? Or at least, won't it increase deforestation ?
Especially if it invites people to burn wood constantly, so that their fridge keeps cool (a warm fridge being useless) ?
Or have I misunderstood the process ?
Posted by: Anne Dutech | May 15, 2007 02:57 PM
While the effort to bring refrigeration technology to remote locations is laudable, wood burning cookstoves are not only a major source of carbon, but a leading cause of desertfication in the Sahel and most of Asia.
A simple clay jar filled with water can, through the proccess of evaporation, extend the life of perishables more efficiently. It is also "locally available" technology.
The developing world deserves a better effort than this, which invites the waste of more natural resources.
Just because you "can", doesn't mean you "should".
That's what led us into the mess in the first place. ( global wawrming)
Jean Novak,
Chandler, AZ
Posted by: Jean Novak | May 18, 2007 05:38 PM
It is rather disappointing that they're using wood burning as the energy source, but remember two things.
One is that people insist on flames for cooking. Solar cookers, for instance, didn't get adopted widely because their cooking characteristics were too different from what people were used to. (Same thing for those of us who hate electric stoves and insist on gas.) Until there's a locally acceptable substitute for wood, maybe it's just as well to get more functions out of the ergs produced.
Two is that the design could probably be easily adapted to use other energy sources for refrigeration, such as solar heat. That would work better since the heat is more continuous, and present right when the cooling needs are greatest.
Posted by: quixote | May 19, 2007 06:30 PM