In Kenya, 69 percent of populations depend on biomass fuels to meet their cooking needs. The incomplete combustion of biomass is performed in insufficiently ventilated settings thus exposing human health and environment to toxic pollution. To date, women and children in resource limited settings have been most vulnerable to severe respiratory infections. The promotion of the Improved Biomass Cookstoves has become a popular issue in policy, research and practice. Community Based Organizations have however faced serious challenges in increasing sustainable use of the cookstoves among users. This qualitative study investigates the role of Community Based Organizations in promoting the Improved Biomass Cookstoves through women’s empowerment initiatives. It applies focus group interviews, questionnaire and formal interviews. 11 interview forms were administered to 30 women, 2 key informants and 3 implementing Community Based Organization representatives in Dunga wetland community. A combination of previous research and this empirical study show that economic resources, small diameter stove designs as well as insufficient policy support hinder effective stove programmes. While there is general adoption, women lack sufficient income and ownership of land which is a significant resource to empowerment. Women informal financial networks are instrumental in driving behavioral change towards clean cooking in the community. Sufficient gender sensitive policy intervention and support can provide effective channels to ensure sustainable incomes of women, livelihoods and stove use.

Billions of people use biomass burning cookstoves in their homes and suffer serious health repercussions. Additionally, global warming is exacerbated by cookstove emissions containing greenhouse gases and particulate matter. Improved cookstoves (ICSs) mitigate the problem, but accurate and affordable emission gas measurements, particularly of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Carbon Monoxide (CO), are required in order to confidently declare ICSs cleaner burning than traditional cookstoves. The aim of this research is to assess the suitability of photoacoustic (PA) CO2 detection technology for cookstove emissions monitoring. The designs of several longitudinally resonant, photoacoustic, LED, CO2 sensors of varying levels of functionality are presented. Three aluminum cell designs allowed the detection of a photoacoustic signal: a 4cm long cylinder with a ~1cm diameter (Design 3), a 3.9cm long cylindrical resonator with ~1in diameter and quarter-acoustic-wavelength buffer volumes (Designs 4a,b), and a 3.7cm long cylinder with ~1in diameter (Design 5). All three cell designs operate in the longitudinal resonant mode via the irradiation of gases inside the PA cell with a 4.3um wavelength LED, driven at an on-off frequency in the kHz range by a square wave from an Arduino. A rudimentary lock-in amplifier (LIA) based on the AD630 was considered, but the SR830 LIA was actually used to extract the desired MEMS microphone signal from noise. Designs 3-4b produced PA signals dominated by wall-absorption, but the final design (Design 5) yielded a resonant PA signal proportional to CO2 concentration. It was discovered that photoacoustic gas detection is challenging to design and set up without extensive experience and equipment. Practical lessons learned are shared. Primary limitations with the presented designs are identified as the extremely low power of the 4.3um LEDs, wall absorption due to insufficient collimation of LED radiation, dependence on temperature, and reliance on an expensive, high performance, lock-in amplifier. Further testing and development of designs like Design 5 (short cylinder with large diameter-to-length ratio) is necessary to evaluate their potential for in-field, real-time CO2 concentration measurement. Though LED PA CO2 sensing was demonstrated to be possible, it is concluded that NDIR CO2 sensors are currently better suited for cookstove use. In addition to photoacoustic detection, a method of detecting CO2 concentration by measuring resonant frequency of the gas cell (The Acoustic Method) is presented.

In Kenya, 69 percent of populations depend on biomass fuels to meet their cooking needs. The incomplete combustion of biomass is performed in insufficiently ventilated settings thus exposing human health and environment to toxic pollution. To date, women and children in resource limited settings have been most vulnerable to severe respiratory infections. The promotion of the Improved Biomass Cookstoves has become a popular issue in policy, research and practice. Community Based Organizations have however faced serious challenges in increasing sustainable use of the cookstoves among users. This qualitative study investigates the role of Community Based Organizations in promoting the Improved Biomass Cookstoves through women’s empowerment initiatives. It applies focus group interviews, questionnaire and formal interviews. 11 interview forms were administered to 30 women, 2 key informants and 3 implementing Community Based Organization representatives in Dunga wetland community. A combination of previous research and this empirical study show that economic resources, small diameter stove designs as well as insufficient policy support hinder effective stove programmes. While there is general adoption, women lack sufficient income and ownership of land which is a significant resource to empowerment. Women informal financial networks are instrumental in driving behavioral change towards clean cooking in the community. Sufficient gender sensitive policy intervention and support can provide effective channels to ensure sustainable incomes of women, livelihoods and stove use.