WORLD'S GREENEST INVENTION

It saves trees, uses free energy, and costs Rs 300: The ‘Kyoto Box’ solar cooker promises to change the world

 A300-rupee cardboard box that uses solar power can cook casseroles, boil water and bake bread. It has the potential to help 3 billion poor people cut greenhouse gases.
    Dubbed the 'Kyoto Box', it bagged the $75,000 Financial Times Climate Change Challenge crown after beating 300 other creations, including a food additive that cuts greenhouse gases produced by cows and other ruminants.
    Norwegian entrepreneur Jon Bøhmer set up Kyoto Energy in Kenya, and has used his own money to fund the project, named after the UN's Kyoto Protocol that seeks to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.
    The Kyoto Box is targeted at the three billion people who use firewood to cook and has the potential to deliver huge environmental and social benefits.
    "We're saving lives and saving trees," says Bohmer. "I doubt if there is any other technology that can make so much impact for so little money."
    The box, which costs 5 euros (Rs 300 approx) to make, aims to save some of the millions of children who die each year from drinking unclean water.
    Bohmer believes it will halve the need for firewood, saving an estimated two tonnes of carbon per family per year, and spare women from the taxing job of foraging for firewood, and the risks of smoke inhalation from indoor cooking.
SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE
The cooker uses the greenhouse effect to boil and bake. It consists of two cardboard boxes, one inside the other, with an acrylic cover that lets the sun's power in and stops it escaping, and doubles up as the cooker-top. A layer of straw or newspaper between the boxes provides insulation, while black paint on the interior and the foil on the exterior concentrate the heat still further.
"The design is so simple that the Kyoto Box can be produced in existing cardboard factories," Bohmer says.
It has just gone into production in a Nairobi factory that can produce 2.5 million boxes a month. A more durable model is being made from recycled plastic.
The Kyoto Box packs flat and thousands can fit many severe problems such as on a lorry. The inventor says he will use the prize money from the competition to conduct trials in various countries, including India.
Bohmer has also developed a more robust, longer-lasting cooker in corrugated plastic, which he says can be mass-produced as cheaply as the cardboard version. They can be manufactured in existing factories and he plans to produce 10,000 for the trials.
The other four finalists in the competition were a garlic-based feed additive to cut methane emissions from livestock; an indoor cooling system using hollow tiles; a cover for truck wheels to reduce fuel use; and a "giant industrial microwave" for creating charcoal.
AGENCIES

 

 

Inventor Jon Bohmer's daughter, five-year-old Amina, helps make the prototype Kyoto Box.

 

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