Biofueled Thermoelectric Cookstove

Over 50 million Indian households cook on a bio-mass fire and have unreliable or no electricity but are anxious to purchase an affordable power stove which will provide on-demand power and lighting to their homes. Annually, projected sales of the power stove could save sixteen million trees, reduce cooking fire particulates by 90%, reduce the two million premature deaths caused from indoor air pollution and prevent the production of three million tons of black carbon particulates. Hi-Z Technology, Inc. (“Hi-Z”), a thermoelectric company and Greenway Appliances, an Indian manufacturer of cookstoves, are planning to introduce a power stove to rural Indian families. Greenway launched the “Smart Stove” in 2011 as a clean and efficient alternative to mudstoves and three stone fires and now is the largest supplier of woodburning cookstoves in India. Hi-Z and Greenway have conceived a “power” stove that will produce up to 10 watts of net electrical power and greatly reduce emissions but additional R&D is required to reduce stove costs and to improve the efficiency of both the stove and its electronics. With Greenway’s successful smart stove sales, power stove sales are estimated to grow to 25% of its total stove sales.