Creating a Smokeless Stove System

Knowledge@Wharton reports on Global Resolve's smokeless stove system:

The group developed a system that could be deployed in rural Africa using only components and materials available in Ghana, Brad Rogers (professor at ASU) explained. The resulting system consists of four integrated subsystems:

1. Corn is milled and steeped, exposing the starches and converting them into fermentable sugars.
2. Yeast is then added and the mixture is allowed to ferment for three to five days.
3. Next, the resulting mixture is distilled to extract the ethanol.
4. Finally, the ethanol is gelled, denatured and stored in sealed containers.

Student teams developed and then integrated these subsystems into a manual corn milling station, a firebox designed to steep and distill the corn, and a water-cooled reflux column still-mounted in a 10 foot-high structure. On top of the structure is a 250 gallon water container, which provides cooling water to the still. The firebox is designed to simultaneously distill as many as four 55-gallon drums, which are readily available in Ghana...[continue reading]