Impact Evaluation of the Use of Ethanol with the CleanCook Stove in the Kebribeyah Refuge Camp

Impact Evaluation of the Use of Ethanol with the CleanCook Stove in the Kebribeyah Refuge Camp
Ephrem Hassen, Ethiopian Rural Energy Development and Promotion Center, Ministry of Mines and Energy,Addis Ababa, October 2006
James Murren, Project Gaia/Stokes Consulting Group, March 2008
CleanCook StoveCleanCook Stove

Introduction and Background
1. According to information from Camp administrators, the Kebribeyah
Camp was established in 1991 and holds more than 16,000 Somali refugees
representing various clans. The Kebribeyah camp is situated about 52Km south
east of the Jijiga town. The refugees get assistance by the WFP, mainly food
items and most other amenities by the UNHCR. Project Gaia, which is designed
to promote clean energy (at present ethanol with its stove) to the vast majority
where there is a shortage of firewood, supplied 300 Clean Cook stoves with
ethanol in collaboration with the UNHCR for refugees in the camp. A further
300 stoves are due to arrive at the camp by the end of 2006. The project has
arranged a storage facility in the Camp and secured about 300,000 liters of
Ethanol form Finchaa Sugar Factory for further supply of ethanol to the camp
residents.

2. The Project also intends to widen the distribution coverage to other
locations where household cooking fuels are in scarce supply and the vegetation
coverage is thinly dispersed. Therefore, this study would be one important
source of information to give clue whether to continue wide-scale distribution of
ethanol and the CleanCook stove which at present is not commercially available,
but which could have a huge potential to meet the demand for cooking.

3. The project requested the Ethiopian Rural Energy Development and
Promotion Center to study the impact of stoves that are already distributed to
camp residents and the ethanol fuel. It is desirable to know the impact of the
stove and fuel on the social and economic life of these refugees. With this intent,
a team of two experts from the EREDPC socio-economics department conducted a two-day household fuel consumption and stoves use survey. This survey was conducted from 09 June to 10 June 1998 (Ethiopian calendar) in the camp on 40 selected households, which are already using ethanol with the CleanCook stove.

4. The results of this survey are outlined in the following sections. In
Section One, responsibility and mode of fuel acquisition in the camp household
and distance traveled in search of the fuels are discussed. Acquisition time and
assumed spending for firewood, risks related with fuel acquisition, advantages
of ethanol and use of the CleanCook are discussed in Sections Two and Three
respectively. Opinion on supply of the stove and the ethanol in the market,
especially in the demand side and technical issues related with use of ethanol
with CleanCook are touched on in sections Four and Five respectively.
Household composition by age group and sex, fuel type used for cooking and
baking, stove types in use by the camp residents, impact of the ethanol with the
CleanCook on indoor environment and health, are presented in brief. Finally,
comments by focus groups are highlighted and the report ends up with
conclusive remarks and few recommendations.

2. Objectives of the study

5. The major objective of this study is to ascertain that provision of ethanol
and the stove (CleanCook) helped to solve basic social, economic and indoor
environmental quality issues of households in the Kebribeyah camp.
6. Specifically :
• To check whether energy is basic issue for the households
• Review contribution of CleanCook with ethanol to solving household
energy problems

James Murren
Stokes Consulting Group
Project Gaia

Mobile: (+1) 717 965 3436
Tel.: (+1) 717 334 5594
Fax: (+1) 717 334 7313
Email: jmurren@gmail.comChaussures Homme J.M. Weston

Comments

I am concerned that there seems to be no report of the addition of a denaturant to the ethanol supply. We have had a number of instances of consumption of undenatured fuel ethanol; and complaints from users when the alcohol was denatured and spills then contaminated foodstuff. Perhaps among Muslim communities one can rely on the prohibition against drinking alcohol to get away without a denaturant, but then there is always a risk that they will see the benefit of selling the fuel to other communities for consumption, when it commands a significant premium!