Eugene weekly., August 30, 2012, Page 10, Image 10

FRED COLGAN TRAINS COOKS AT DISPLACED PERSON CAMPS
IN DARFUR ON HOW TO USE ISS STOVES
PHOTO COURTESY ISS
PROBLEM-SOLVING STOVES
Cottage Grove sends stoves to the world
O
n Colgan’s Island there are roses and a vegetable
garden to attend to. There’s music blaring from
a stereo in a workshop barn. There’s a gang of
chickens and a tail-wagging black Labrador.
There’s a former slaughterhouse and there’s a
bright blue cottage. At the moment, this equally
peaceful and industrious setting is the scene of
many ongoing changes, and they all have to do
with stoves.
The four-acre lot is tucked between a rusted
railroad trestle and the Coast Fork Willamette River just
north of Cottage Grove on Highway 99, and it has been the
home of Aprovecho Research Center (ARC) since 2004.
Fred Colgan has been warmly calling it his “island” since
he moved here from California to retire with his wife. He
spent years as a building contractor, but he also invested his
time as a community organizer with a passion for social
justice. Instead of retiring to fish and golf, he was excited
that a nonprofit organization was going to build and test
cooking stoves on his property after mutual acquaintances
put them in touch. Colgan will now be the director of a
split-off organization: Institutional Stove Solutions (ISS).
ARC is part of the Willamette Valley-based nonprofit
known simply as Aprovecho (meaning to use, utilize and
embrace in Spanish), which specializes in developing
sustainable agricultural practices. For 29 years, an enclosed
green stove with an aluminum chimney has been the
center’s weapon of choice for combating pollution and
health problems commonly attributed to use of open-fire
cooking stoves in the developing world. Designed by ARC
engineer Larry Winiarski, its cylindrical shape and internal
combustion make its “rocket-stove” designation more than
apt. A 60-liter stainless steel pot fits snugly in the top, and
the heat down below is insulated, making the shell cool to
the touch. Wood is fed through a slot at the bottom. On July
1, manufacturing this stove became the objective of ISS.
BY TED SHORACK
STOVES FOR THE WORLD
On a back wall of the main office, the shelves are filled
with stoves from around the world — both of clay and of
metal. Since its infancy, ARC has worked at testing stoves
from around the world in an effort to make them more fuel-
efficient. According to Colgan, separating testing from
manufacturing is a reason for making ISS and ARC two
different organizations in an effort to promote credibility
and neutrality.
Colgan has a large gray mustache, a short and sturdy
build and is friendlier than his gruff-sounding voice would
lead you to believe. On a tour through the testing-center, he
points out new innovations that will come to fruition with
ISS. One of them is a stainless steel pot with a pressure
gauge sprouting from the top. He places it inside the green
stove shell. “It’s like a sophisticated pressure cooker,” he
says. “It forces the steam through everything that’s in
there.”
This type of sterilization pot is known in the medical
world as an autoclave, which forces heat in the form of
steam through enclosed items. There are trials under way to
implement the sterilization of medical equipment and
waste, and a system to purify water by using the stoves’
capability to generate heat from within at up to 2,000
degrees Fahrenheit.
Autoclaves are already used in hospitals in the developing
world. Colgan believes Aprovecho/ISS stove’s autoclave
capability will be utilized in areas where there is spotty
electricity as a backup. He sees it being used predominantly in
rural clinics that have little or no access to electrical outlets.
“This is a really inexpensive, super-efficient way to bring
medical-grade sterilization to hospitals and clinics,” he says.
If sterilization of equipment is an issue that needs
rectifying in the developing world, then so is medical
waste. ISS expects the stove’s autoclave to be used in the
same capacity before disposing of bloody bandages, culture
dishes, latex gloves and, of course, needles, since HIV is
prevalent in many developing countries. “Stuff coming out
of hospitals isn’t being properly treated,” Colgan says of
medical waste. “It goes into the waste stream.” He says that
if the waste is burned in the open, it can release chemicals
such as dioxin. According to the World Health Organization,
exposure to such chemical compounds is “highly toxic and
can cause reproductive and developmental problems,
damage the immune system, interfere with hormones and
also cause cancer.” The stove’s autoclave would apply hot
steam to the waste in order to thoroughly sterilize it. “If
they run it through an autoclave first it’s completely
sterile,” Colgan says, “then it doesn’t matter how they
dispose of it.”
FRED COLGAN AND AN ISS STOVE
PHOTO BY TODD COOPER
10 AUGUST 30, 2012
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