Nepal 2013 Trip Update

As I'm still transcribing journal entries and reflections from the experience in Nepal, I'd invite folks to have a look through my facebook album here, the team's facebook group here, and the following email update that I sent to folks in the Kumari circle of friends. Please contact me if you'd like more details about the cook stove project, other projects in Kumari, Nuwakot, Nepal, or ideas for excellent trekking in the Langtang region of Nepal.
Namaste

Hello Kumari circle of friends,

Dan Sweeney here from the University of Utah Engineers Without Borders group, and fresh back from our incredible month-long experience in Nepal.  In keeping with the spirit of our amazing and growing group of people involved in work in Kumari, I wanted to send out an update to everyone about our recent trip and plans moving forward with our improved cook stove and other projects.

Just a quick recap: The Kumari cook stove project is being funded under the US EPA P3 program in which the Utah team was selected for a Phase 1 (assessment) grant in 2012, and is now competing with approximately 50 teams from other US universities for one of ~5 Phase 2 (implementation) grants. Representatives of our team will attend the 2013 National Sustainable Design Expo in Washington DC in April to present our Phase 1 results and proposed plans for Phase 2, after which the EPA judges will determine the Phase 2 award recipients.

A major portion of our Phase 1 effort is focused on selecting an improved cook stove design that can be adapted to be built and used in Kumari.  In order to complete the selection and design, we determined that it would be very beneficial to send a few of our team members to Kumari to perform a thorough assessment of available materials, current cooking methods, and the interest and willingness of the locals to adopt a new cooking device, as well as gain the confidence of the villagers by engaging in dialog and education with them.

Four of us from Utah traveled to Kumari over this past winter break, spending close to 2 weeks in the village.  We were also very lucky to have Carolyn Sadowska on board with us for this project doing some preliminary scouting work and logistic support, and along with us for the duration of our work in the village for our assessment trip.  Jagat also organized a great support team for us made up of some of his trekking colleagues and a few villagers.  Thanks also to Randy Baker and others from HE4N for lots of logistical support, and to Scott MacLennan and the folks at the Mountain Volunteer House for advise and accommodations in Kathmandu.

The primary goal of this trip was an assessment to gather data in order to help our team carry out a formal engineering selection and design for the Kumari cook stove.  Prior to the visit, we had screened many different stove designs and selected a few potential designs that we felt could be adaptable to use in Kumari.  Most are constructed either of sheet metal, or cast from a mixture of clay, sand, and insulating material.  Even before traveling to Kumari, it became apparent that the availability of sheet metal was limited, so we arrived in Kumari planning to identify materials for a cast, or stone/brick-constructed stove.  With such good organization by Jagat, we identified nearby sources of clay, sand and rice hulls (insulating material) in little time, and hired a truck and gathered some helping hands to gather some of each material.  We then had some lumber cut by Jagat's oldest brother and built brick molds to make some initial fire-bricks and test the quality of the materials.  With the quality of the materials appearing to be suitable for construction we gathered mold materials (modified ~5 gallon bucket) to build version 1.0 of the Kumari stove, and with plenty of helping hands available, cast a rocket-style cook stove combustion chamber and a few bricks for the fuel and air inlet.  Other than these pieces, the Kumari 1.0 design only required a small piece of sheet metal or thin slate, and five small pieces of rebar.  The stove and bricks were cast and fired and then moved into a nearby home for testing.  After testing and some input from the villagers, we had a few ideas for improvements, and moved forward with a build of Kumari 1.1 and subsequent testing.  In addition, during all of the stove builds and testing, we had several of the local support team with us learning about the build and testing techniques, and also providing valuable input and feedback from their own experience (not surprisingly, far greater than ours).  With respect to materials and prototype building, this was far more than we had planned to accomplish.

In addition to the construction materials assessment and prototype stove construction and testing, we planned to gather a lot of information about current cook stoves and cooking methods.  We were kindly allowed to visit many homes and observed many meals being prepared (and sometimes got to partake in the eating of the meals!). To gather quantitative stove performance and emissions data, we brought along portable CO monitors with data logging capability (to measure point concentration of CO), an air sampler (to collect particulate matter from the ambient air in the home), surface temperature thermocouples, a digital thermometer, and a digital scale (to measure wood consumption).  In many of the homes we were able to carry out a standardized water boil test in which we boiled 1 L of water on the cook stove in the home (most commonly a 3-stone fire).  For these tests, we would attach one of the CO monitors to the cook, place another CO monitor and the air sampler at head level in the middle of the room, and measure the amount of time and wood required to boil the water, all the while logging emissions data on the monitors.  These tests allow us to compare the heating performance, fuel consumption, and emissions performance of the different stoves in the village, our improved stove, and also cook stoves that we are building and testing in Utah.  In most cases testing with existing stoves or 3-stone fires, we measured CO concentrations in the home above 100 ppm, and in some cases as high as 500-600 ppm (OSHA permissible exposure limit is 50 ppm for an 8 hr period).  This compares to the Kumari 1.1 stove in which we could achieve ~20 ppm room CO if operated properly.  Elevated CO concentrations were also measured outside of the room containing the cookstove, including adjacent rooms and upstairs in some homes.

We also had many opportunities to engage in good conversation about our project with the villagers and passers-by from nearby villages.  We worked with Jagat to have a very nice poster made which helped to guide the conversation and assisted us in making points when educating the locals about the benefits of improved cook stoves.  In addition, we visited the Kumari 7 Shree Pokhari Lower Secondary School and carried out improved cook stove related lessons in English (with translation help from Chandra and the teachers) for the three different age groups of students.  The children were very receptive to and excited about this interaction, and this should definitely be included in future visits, possibly with some teaching materials prepared and educational materials to leave for the students.

Aside from the cook stove, we were also able to assess a couple of other areas that our group will hopefully assist with in the future.  First, we spent some time with Jagat and other villagers scouting the freshwater spring above the village that will soon supply the medical clinic.  We were able to gather elevation and flowrate data at this and a couple of other springs.  Jagat also showcased some of the work that is being done to implement sanitary toilets in the village, and a couple of these that are being equipped with biogas collection and delivery systems.  This is a very good way of utilizing otherwise useless material (ie. human, household, agricultural, and livestock waste) to produce combustible gas for cooking, heating and lighting, and also nutrient rich compost for plant fertilizer.  We hope to assist with implementation of more of these systems in the village.

Aside from all of this work, we also had a great time interacting with the villagers- playing with the children, speaking and practicing English with the older students, and singing and dancing in the evenings with villagers of all ages.  We enjoyed good discussion, storytelling and great collaboration with Jagat and his team (Purna, Chandra, Kancha, and Chet).  Kumari is a truly unique community of people and ideas that enables change to happen at a striking pace, and we are very honored to be a part of the progress being made there.

As a reward for our hard work in the village, we joined Chet, Kancha, Di and Carolyn on a 12-day trek in Langtang National Park, reaching Kyanjin Gompa at the base of Langtang Peak and then intersecting the Tamang Heritage Trail where we learned about and saw the villages of the early Tamang people who now live in Kumari.  An unforgettable experience!

We are now regrouping, sorting through photos (a few attached), videos, data and notes, and making preparations for stove testing in our controlled and well-instrumented cook stove experimental test rig at the University of Utah.  After gathering some additional data from these laboratory tests, we will be preparing a final report and proposal to present in hopes of gaining Phase 2 funding for this project which would likely bring us back to Kumari next year for a much broader educational and training program and to assist in the scale-up of improved cook stove production.  In addition, we are working to support the medical team with a design and possibly funding for the medical clinic spring water supply.  It's likely that we will be in touch with many of you in the coming weeks and months to ask for advise or input on plans moving forward.  We always welcome feedback or input from all of you, so feel free to respond, or forward this on to other folks who may be interested.

Many thanks again to all of you for helping to make our visit a success!  We are adding photos to a Facebook group (search Facebook for "Nepal Cookstoves project"), and we will be posting notes and journal entries onto several blogs.  We will share details of those to everyone as they roll out into the digital world.

Best wishes to everyone in 2013, and look forward to continuing work with all of you on efforts in Kumari.

Namaste

The Utah Cook Stove Team