Ethanol Gel Fueled Stoves For Urban Poor - Kenya

This activity is promoting the use of ethanol gel fueled stoves, called Moto Safi’s™, sourced from Arusha, Tanzania.

Key facts:

To date over 9,240 Moto Safi™stoves have been sold within a 50 kilometer radius of Nairobi, valued at USD 136,194 or 13.8 million Kenyan Shillings;
Over 142,000 litres of ethanol gel have been sold since 2011, valued at USD 197,383 or 20 million Kenyan Shillings.

The problem

Women and girls throughout sub Saharan Africa, especially in the rural areas, walk long distances in order to collect firewood for their households. They often have to carry heavy loads of firewood for long periods of time and when they burn the wood, they are exposed to potentially dangerous fumes that endangers their health.

The solution

This activity is creating awareness about the disadvantages of polluting cooking fuels and cookstoves and encouraging consumers to switch to cleaner cooking fuels and stoves. They produce and sell a bio-ethanol gel that can be used in a specially made stove called Moto Safi™, which comes in single and double burner stoves. The stoves are user friendly, durable and safe. The fuel tank is not pressurized and thus cannot explode. The stove is adjusted and extinguished by a simple regulator and is lightweight and portable. The activity aims to ensure that the stoves and the fuel remain affordable to the consumer.

Helping the planet

These stoves eliminate the need for women and girl to chop down trees in the forest for firewood, thus reducing the amount of deforestation in the area. The stoves also replace the use of polluting fuels like charcoal and liquid kerosene, reducing carbon emissions.

Helping people

These stoves are high performing and will provide significant health benefits to families who are otherwise dependant on dung, crop waste, wood, charcoal and kerosene. It eliminates dangerous smoke which is a major cause of indoor air pollution.

Scaling Up

This activity aims to ensure that the Moto Safi stove is in 500,000 homesteads in urban Kenya and over 20 million litres of ethanol gel is sold by end of 2019.