Neno Macadamia Trust

July 2016 Imperial College MSc student installs and tests efficient cook stove at Home of Hope

Alan is analysing efficiency and emissions from solid fuels including macadamia shells.

He is working with Ken of HIMACUL, visiting macadamia shelling factories and working at the Home of Hope which has the new macadamia nursery and large kitchen cooking requirements.

NMT is supporting this work because tree growing, shelling, wood burning and cooking are all significantly interlinked.

The cook stoves Alan is developing will produce charcoal/biochar which is a very significant product of the wood burning process. It can be used as a clean fuel or used extensively in many other fields including soil enrichment to improve harvest yields of crops.

He is working with Home of Hope staff to develop practical solid fuel stoves in a Malawi context, with the aim of helping to reduce deforestation. Use of stoves fueled by macadamia nut shells provides another benefit of planting macadamia trees.