A stove building session, supervised by Bob Hodgson, of Pyrois Technologies, was run last September 27th to construct a batch of clean-burning, highly fuel efficient cookstoves to be supplied to help some of the homeless refugees currently stranded in Europe, who have been left in desperate need of most of life’s necessities, whose plight has been largely overlooked by authorities and mainstream NGO’s.
The session was run as part of a wider humanitarian relief effort, organized by Jay Gearing and Sophie Antonelli, members of The Green Backyard, a volunteer-run charity and community growing project based in Peterborough, England. As well as the stoves , tents, clothing, food and other items urgently needed by the homeless and destitute refugees were generously donated by the public in response to their appeal and crowd-funding campaign.
Bob created the stove design allowing the batch of stoves to be quickly built by the team of volunteers from pre-made kits of parts sourced locally, including CNC Laser cut parts. Bob, said “Normally it can take weeks to get these items fabricated, but we managed to get it done in just a few days with the help of local suppliers . It was a close run thing as some vital parts only arrived with literally a couple of hours before the team had to get on their way!”
The stoves, known as rocket stoves, are of a type originally invented by Dr Larry Winiarski (technical director of the Aprovecho Research Centre, based in the USA ), and the advanced design means the stoves burn fuel very cleanly and do not produce the pollution associated with ordinary fires. A particular benefit is that the stoves are highly fuel efficient, requiring only a small amount of wood to operate when cooking, allowing the maximum use to be made from scant local resources.
Each stove was supplied complete with a set of cooking utensils , pots, instructions and food , together with a matching “haybox” (a traditional method for economical cooking.) and is capable of cooking hot meals for around 15-25 people .
Pyrois Technologies is a member of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, an international organization promoting the development and use of clean cooking technologies in developing countries