US Lab to improve design of BPSU-developed cookstove

BALANGA CITY, Bataan – The Bataan Peninsula State University (BPSU) and US-based Burn Design Laboratory have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the design improvement of BPSU-developed cookstove. BPSU President Dr. Greg Rodis signed the MOU in the Philippines while Burn Design Laboratory Executive Director Paul Means signed the document in New Delhi, India. Engr. Jonathan Lacayanga, BPSU Abucay Campus Director and inventor of the cookstove and Means were in New Delhi last October as participants for the 2017 Clean Cooking Forum. BURN Design Laboratory is a nonprofit corporation that creates customized biomass stove solutions to meet the cooking needs of the developing world based in Vashon Island, Washington. Lacayanga said Means is planning to visit BPSU by January to layout plans for the collaboration. The BPSU cookstove, aside from not polluting the air is safe, easy to use, consume minimal fuel, durable and adaptable for different cooking purposes. In developing countries like the Philippines, the use of open fire stove that burn biomass fuel inefficiently are noted to cause hazards to human health, environment, and other household problems. The cookstove has been recognized by the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC), a United Nations initiative, making BPSU one of the about 430 institutions in the world belonging to the alliance and the first in the Philippines. As member of GACC, BPSU becomes an implementing partner in realizing the vision of the alliance to provide and distribute 100 million clean cookstoves for biomass dependent households worldwide by the year 2020.