AHDESA is currently collaborating under a grant from the Partnership with the Aprovecho Research Center and Trees, Water and People of the United States in initiating a micro-enterprise development project with improved biomass stoves in the capital city, Tegucigalpa, Honduras. We are dedicated to the expansion of the use of improved cooking stoves, integrating the Aprovecho Rocket technology, which reduce the consumption of fuel-wood and reduce the emissions of gaseous contaminants into the household and into the atmosphere. The micro-enterprise project is a portion of a continuing project to disseminate fixed JUSTA stoves to both the rural and urban population of Honduras. We also engage in watershed management projects, of which one focii is the establishment of dendro-energetic plantations of fast-growing trees that will act as fuel banks for future generations of Hondurans - taking pressure off of our country's native forests.
Contact Information
AHDESA currenly operates only in Honduras, focusing its work on collaborations with the most economically disadvantaged populations of the country in both rural and urban sectors. Our initiatives range from projects dealing with individual communities to ever-expanding national level initiatives.
Our Experience And Interest In The Four PCIA Central Focus Areas
We have six years of experience with stove dissemination in Honduras, including the development of the now well-known JUSTA stove, which was designed with expertise from both the Aprovecho Research Center and local community leaders. Community integration has always been a foundation of AHDESA's stove projects, and has graced us with considerable success in the assimilation and proper use of the stoves within the community.
We are in the process of unveiling four to six new models of improved cooking technology into the open market as the foundation of our micro-enterprise development project in Tegucigalpa. All stoves will incorporate the Aprovecho Rocket design, and be accesible to various income brackets, with the smallest, one-pot stoves costing as little as US$10.
All of our cooking aparati incorporate the Aprovecho Rocket Elbow combustion chamber design, consisting of an elevated shelf within a small, insulated fire box that concentrates and delivers heat more efficiently and keeps draft and flue gasses moving through the stove in one direction. All but one of our current designs incorporate a chimney to the exterior of the house, both to improve draft and aid combustion efficiency, as well as to remove emissions from the household.
In our current project we are establishing baseline exposure and pollution data in homes using traditional open-fire stoves and using this data to compare against the reduced levels reached upon the installation of an improved cooking stove. We are currently focusing on the levels of Carbon Monoxide and particulate matter that occur as a result of wood combustion in the home.
Relevant Publications or Studies
None noted
Our Contribution to the Partnership
AHDESA is currently contributing to the universe of data and experience that exists around improved cooking technology dissemination and introduction into populations that use wood primarily for cooking fuel.
