Since March '22, I have been volunteering for Prakti, a social enterprise company based in Thailand that is developing techniques to improve the combustion of cookstoves. I decided to intern for Prakti because their product philosophy matched my research insights on how to best solve this problem (to improve combustion vs. to replace the entire cookstove).

I was instrumental in influencing a nonprofit in India (The Kalgidhar Trust) where I had volunteered in the past (and had strong relationships with the leadership team) to conduct a pilot of Prakti's latest product in one of their rural locations. Having a local organization like The Kalgidhar Trust was very important for the pilot's success since they had trust with the local villagers and had strong relationships with the village elders (who had to be convinced to be part of the pilot).

As part of the pilot, I spent two weeks in a remote village in India (300 kilometers north of New Delhi) in July '22, along with a Prakti engineer, to test one of their products to improve combustion.

Pilot Details

Objective of the pilot was to test Prakti’s latest  technology (called Prakti Air) to improve combustion. Prakti Air is an insert that is installed in their existing cookstoves. Additional air at the base of the fire due to Prakti Air device leads to more efficient combustion.

I interfaced with the villagers (since I knew the local language) to understand their needs and unique requirements. I trained them on how to use Prakti's product and then partnered with Parkti's engineer to conduct the tests. As part of the test, I measured the impact on air quality, wood consumption, and cooking time.

Learnings from Pilot

• Users preferred to use wood for cooking because it was free (available in the forest nearby)

• Women and children spend ~6-8 hours every day to gather wood. As a result children cannot go to school and women cannot work

• Smoke from wood stoves is a big problem. Smoke is seen as a constant irritant (although the users did not connect the impact of smoke to long-term issues like respiratory diseases)

• Government of India has provided villagers with highly subsidized gas stoves, but they are infrequently used. Villagers only use it when special guests come to their home (~once in a couple of weeks). This is because wood is free and gas is still expensive (after subsidy). In addition its difficult to transport the heavy gas cylinder up the mountain to their homes

• User loved that they did not have to “give-up” their existing cookstoves. They enjoyed using Prakti Air insert

• Prakti’s technology led to incredible impact to air quality. AQI (Air Quality Index that measures Particulate Matter) decreased from >500 to <250

• There was visibly less smoke while cooking. There was less soot on walls; less soot on pots & pans. This will lead to less time spent cleaning pots and painting walls (currently people re-paint their walls 2-3 times per year)

• Long term adoption of Prakti Air is HIGH. 7 months after pilot, 7 out of 8 stoves still being used! For context, industry average is ~10-20%
  Overall the pilot was a big success.  We not only proved that using Prakti's technology led to step function improvement in air quality but also obtained insights that users are more likely to continue to use such a solution since we did not change their existing stove.