In December 2012, a study on the global burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors brought to light that each year, 4 million people die from the household air pollution that is caused by cooking with solid fuels. To quote the United Nations Foundation on the subject: “Each day, around 3 billion people cook and heat their homes using open fires and inefficient stoves that burn solid fuels such as wood, animal dung, agricultural residues, charcoal, and coal. As a result, 3.5 million deaths are directly associated with Household Air Pollution each year. In addition, another 500,000 deaths from outdoor air pollution caused by cooking, with a large share of outdoor pollution in regions like Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa originating from household solid fuel use.” Not only does cooking on open fire form a health threat to its users, it also has an undeniable impact on the environment in the form of deforestation and high CO2-emission.
The Fortune Cooker is a clean cookstove that aims to eliminate the use of open fire or inefficient stoves as well as reduce the amount of fuel to be used during cooking. It does that by combining solar energy with a second power source, which can entail a variation on the rocket stove or a more common power source like electricity or gas. A function analysis of the performances of the product is to be found in appendix 1.
Ultimately the Fortune Cooker’s goal matches that of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves: to make families cooking on open fire switch to cleaner, more efficient cookstoves, and thereby combat deforestation and reduce CO2 emission.