February 23, 2004
By Jonews Reporter
JOHANNESBURG health officials from Region 1 and Region 2 have come up with an innovative way to cut down on air pollution - they have made major improvements to the coal-burning cookers currently used by residents.
Many of the residents in these two Johannesburg regions live in settlements that rely on coal as a source of energy and heat. This means that large amounts of smoke from coal-burning fires are emitted into the atmosphere - causing pollution and health problems. According to health officials from the two regions as much as 330kg of sulphur dioxide get released into the air daily.
However, this is about to change. The City's inventors have now created a much-improved cooker, known in the townships as an imbawula that releases measurably less pollution compared to those currently in use in the townships.
The health officials said the new "Smokeless Imbawula" was designed to combat the current levels of air pollution, which exceeded the 150 micrograms per cubic meter stipulated by US Environmental Protection Agency standards. The EPA standards allow this level to be exceeded only three times in three years.
The "Smokeless Imbawula" has been put through rigorous testing by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and has come out with top marks. "Assessments were done comparing the traditional and new imbawulas for thermal performance and combustion products," officials said.
The CSIR results indicated that the old design imbawula gave off higher concentrations of carbon monoxide compared to the new model. In the CISIR tests the new design also proved that the higher operating temperature and more efficient combustion of the coal fuel ensured that the sulphur content in the coal was consumed in a shorter period. "The old imbawula produced smoke for a longer period," wrote S Strydom, of the CSIR fire engineering sciences department, on the report.
The new smokeless imbawula has an advantage over the old models, as it reaches operating temperatures much quicker than the old unit, according to Strydom. Unlike the old ones that take about 60 minutes, the new imbawula can be ready for cooking purposes within 20 minutes after starting the fire. "This has significant implications for users since they can start preparing meals in a considerably shorter period of time."
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