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The
worries
and headaches of households due to soaring
price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) will soon come to an end. The
Leyte
State University (LSU), in partnership with Bosch and Siemens Home
Appliance
Group (BSH), has developed a cost-saving alternative to LPG - a stove
called “Protos”
that is powered by plant oil such as that of coconut,
“tuba-tuba”, soya bean,
corn, golden shower, talisay, peanut, cotton, sunflower and many more.
Economical
Plant oil stove is more
economical to use than LPG. Based on the experience of pilot
households, a typical family of five can consume about P185 worth of
fuel in a month’s time. In contrast, the same
family using LPG would spend approximately P300 per month on fuel. The
initial cost of purchasing the Protos unit is comparable to the price
of an LPG-powered stove with an empty tank.
An unapparent advantage is when you run out of fuel. You can continue to cook in Protos with only 1 liter of oil worth P28 while an LPG user needs to purchase one whole tank worth almost P500. This feature of Protos Stove is a big help to the minimal wage earners.
An unapparent advantage is when you run out of fuel. You can continue to cook in Protos with only 1 liter of oil worth P28 while an LPG user needs to purchase one whole tank worth almost P500. This feature of Protos Stove is a big help to the minimal wage earners.
Safe
The plant oil stove is safe. Its emission is not hazardous to health. It is also not flammable under normal room conditions compared to other gases, thus, less prone to fire. Moreover, it does not have soot compared to petroleum-based stove. These were the findings of the technology demo in Ormoc City, Tacloban City, Baybay Leyte and “Inopacan Islands” (Mahaba and Apid) in Leyte and of the non-pilot user in Burauen, Leyte.
Abundance of Plant Oil
Another edge of the plant oil stove
is the abundance of coconut in Leyte and Samar, the region being one of
the top producers of coconut in the Philippines. Not only
will the local supply of plant fuel be assured, coconut farmers will
also be buffered from international copra price fluctuations. If we
recall in year 2000, farmers gravely suffered when the international
price of copra drastically dropped because there were no alternative
uses for coconut.
Aside from coconut, “tuba-tuba” is eyed as a bright prospect for Protos. It is easy to propagate either through cutting or seeds, planting materials are readily available, easy to grow as it thrives in marginal areas, not labor intensive to harvest and process and has high oil recovery rate. It can be planted under existing coconut plantations to maximize the utilization of farmlands and increase farmer’s income.
Tuba-tuba, if planted
through cuttings,
starts to produce seeds after 6 months. If planted from seeds,
harvesting of
seeds can start as early as two years. A one-hectare land can be
planted with
1,600 tuba-tuba trees with a potential average harvest of 1 liter per
tree per
annum after three years
from planting.
This plant is non-seasonal therefore, harvesting is continuous.
Producing
the StoveAside from coconut, “tuba-tuba” is eyed as a bright prospect for Protos. It is easy to propagate either through cutting or seeds, planting materials are readily available, easy to grow as it thrives in marginal areas, not labor intensive to harvest and process and has high oil recovery rate. It can be planted under existing coconut plantations to maximize the utilization of farmlands and increase farmer’s income.
Producing the Stove
The plant oil
stove technology is now
approaching commercialization due to overwhelming orders received by
the LSU,
which at the moment cannot be adequately met.
So far, there is only one (1) existing stove fabricating
plant and one
processor of the crude coconut oil, all located in Baybay, Leyte. At
present,
the crude oil processor has only a capacity of 250 liters a day for an
eight-hour operation. Production
and marketing arrangements have still to
be threshed out to make the technology available to a wider range
of consumers.The technology is not yet perfect.
Experiments are on-going at LSU to reduce the noise, shorten the duration of initial heating time and increase the power efficiency. Despite this, the people cannot wait to get their hands on this revolutionary plant oil stove.Protos development is under an integrated project entitled “Pilot Testing and Promotion of Plant Oil Stove in the Philippines” headed by of LSU and funded by the BSH and the German Development. Once fully commercialized, the technology will also translate into foreign exchange savings for the country.
Need for national government assistance
National government assistance is needed to set the climate for the wider adoption of the technology. Among the assistance needed are: (a) establishment of village level plant oil processing centers through capital assistance to coops in the barangays (construction of building, equipment acquisition and seed money for initial operation); (b) installation of coconut drying facilities; (c) capital and technical support for the expansion of coconut production areas and the establishment of plantations for other oil-producing plants especially “tuba-tuba” multi-cropped with coconut; and (d) information dissemination.
Experiments are on-going at LSU to reduce the noise, shorten the duration of initial heating time and increase the power efficiency. Despite this, the people cannot wait to get their hands on this revolutionary plant oil stove.Protos development is under an integrated project entitled “Pilot Testing and Promotion of Plant Oil Stove in the Philippines” headed by of LSU and funded by the BSH and the German Development. Once fully commercialized, the technology will also translate into foreign exchange savings for the country.
Need for national government assistance
National government assistance is needed to set the climate for the wider adoption of the technology. Among the assistance needed are: (a) establishment of village level plant oil processing centers through capital assistance to coops in the barangays (construction of building, equipment acquisition and seed money for initial operation); (b) installation of coconut drying facilities; (c) capital and technical support for the expansion of coconut production areas and the establishment of plantations for other oil-producing plants especially “tuba-tuba” multi-cropped with coconut; and (d) information dissemination.
For
more info about Protos, contact
Prof. Roberto C. Guarte, PhD.
Prepared by NEDA Region VIII
Project Director
Plant Oil Stove Project, Philippine Component
Leyte State University
College of Engineering and Agri-industries
ViSCA, Baybay, Leyte
Email: guarte_rc@yahoo.com
Based on information provided
by the Leyte State University, Baybay, Leyte
May 3, 2006