NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

With World Health Organisation (WHO) identifying indoor pollution being significantly responsible for the declining rural health and high mortality rate in India, National Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (Neeri) has developed ‘Neerdhur’, a novel multi-fuel domestic cooking stove.

“The unique thing of the stove is that apart from wood, other fuel like coal, cowdung and agricultural residue can also be used in it. It also saves 50% fuel and has high thermal efficiency,” said Nitin Labhsetwar, the senior principal scientist (Environmental Materials Division), who started developing the project around three-four years back. He added that the Neerdhur reduces cooking times and is super efficient.

Explaining how the stove came about, he added, “Between 2008 and 2012, Neeri surveyed some 100 rural households and found that there were high emission from traditional stoves. People had poor awareness about their health, and so Neeri felt that there was a need for a stove that can use any biomass.”

Explaining how it is different from the traditional brick-based stoves, scientist Ankit Gupta, who was a part of this project, said, “As the existing stoves being used by rural women are tightly packed by bricks, there is insufficient air supply to facilitate proper combustion. This results in higher emissions and lower thermal efficiency.”