Waffco

The solution

WAFFCO, Waste-Fuel Free Combustion, is a closed biomass burning stove for households. Simple and cheap to produce, it is constructed mainly of clay and metal and designed to replace open-fire stoves. It serves as a free cooking technology since it is fired with the agricultural waste generated as well as domestic and packaging waste material.

Using this garbage as a heat source, the stove helps decrease the growing waste problem and saves households hours of searching for wood for burning. Heat and energy produced by these stoves can be also used for heating purposes and provide warm and sterilized water as well. This stove is so simply constructed that the complete product can be manufactured locally. Materials used for the stove such as burnt clay and high temperature resistant metal are also at hand in the region. The cooking stovetop consists of an upper metal plate for cooking purposes, whereas, the combustion chamber is made of fireproof clay-sidewalls with metal cover and front door. WAFFCO can be integrated with a boiler for the generation of hot and sterilized water.

Not only does the stove ensure a safe cooking atmosphere compared to local conditions, the emission and safety parameters are in accordance to German and European standards.

Implementation & (Social) Business Approach

A one-week training workshop will be conducted in Ghana at four pilot manufacturing workshops by a special team of two engineers and a technician from Fraunhofer IBP. Afterwards, 25 WAFFCO stoves will be produced in each workshop on the basis of the stove modules and the training workshop. These stoves will be then distributed in Ghana. Due to the simple manufacturing of WAFFCO stove, the manufacturers are able to produce the stoves with the available tools and materials.

A WAFFCO stove can be purchased at 30-40 USD and lasts up to 10 years. This stove is regarded inexpensive for the consumer, who may earn an average of 3 USD per day in Ghana. The product is also suitable for public facilities and organizations such as schools, kindergartens, camps and other institutions with larger dimensioned stoves and integrated water boilers.

Sources

• empowering people. Network database WAFFCO - empowering people. Network (siemens-stiftung.org)