CREEC on the 15th of February hosted officials from Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for a training in improved biomass stoves at the Biomass Research Centre.
The main objectives of this training was to equip participants with skills and knowledge about general international stove making standards that include designing principles of wood stoves, charcoal stoves and gasifier stoves.
They were also equipped with knowledge about the steps taken to make a good stove that include the emissions test, water boiling tests, heat transfer in stoves, flame dynamics and combustion in stoves.
The group was led by two government officials from Burundi and DRC, University researchers, staff of International Finance Development Company (IFDC), artisans (tinsmiths) and traders of cookstoves.
The group was grateful to Makerere University for having such a centre equipped with state of the art technology and offering training in improved stove making.
Venat Balindogo, the head of this team and a member of IFDC says that he didn’t know Africa had such a biomass centre that can be used to train students and guide tinsmiths in making environmentally friendly stoves.
“Many of us have been here (Uganda) before but we didn’t know much about the existence of such a centre. We are grateful to CREEC for having come up with such an innovation.” He further noted.
Zakari Niragira, an artisan couldn’t hide his astonishment upon receiving this insightful training. He admittedly said;
“I am embarrassed to confess this but I didn’t even know about those stove making steps and yet I make them! I am so glad I’ve been able to get this information and I can’t wait to share it with other artisans and applying them in my work”.
The Biomass Research Centre is equipped with a Portable Emission Monitoring System (PEMS) from Aprovecho Research Centre that is used to test energy efficiency, measure and analyze emissions of all cooktoves. With this centre, CREEC is recognized as regional testing centre by the Partnership on Clean Indoor Air as the only one in the East African region. Stoves from various manufactures both locally and internationally are brought here for testing.