What’s Cooking in the Clean Cooking Catalog?
The Alliance has launched a new version of the Clean Cooking Catalog, a global database cooking solutions, including stoves, fuels, and fuel production and delivery products. The Catalog continues to be the one-stop shop for information on characteristics, specifications, and geography, as well as testing data based on laboratory and field tests.
The most significant update to the Catalog is a new section dedicated to Fuels. As with stoves, manufacturers, distributors and others can submit fuels, fuel products, and related test results for inclusion in the Catalog. A section on Fuel Production or Delivery Products includes technology and equipment for processing, conversion, storage, and delivery of fuels. Fuel “profile” pages provide information about the range of properties and performance by fuel type based on user-submitted test results.
But why are there so few fuel products listed you may ask? This is a new section and an expanding focus for the sector. The Alliance wants to drive our fuel partners towards this resource not only to highlight their products by providing submissions, but to provide more data, paired with information about stoves, that can be used to evaluate and compare fuel options and inform choices based on the performance and quality of fuels.
The new format of the Catalog includes updates to further improve usability. Stove and fuel entries are organized by section (general information, consumer information, and specifications) and streamlined to highlight key information, allowing for easy comparison and evaluation by different factors. In addition, the updated Catalog has been designed for viewing on mobile devices and tablets, as well as optimized for computer screens. Tooltips integrated throughout explain features and terms, a full glossary includes definitions of critical terminology, and a user’s guide provides a summary of all key features targeted to different stakeholder groups. With a combination of available, up-to-date information and ease-of-use, the Catalog can be a tool for raising awareness of options and tradeoffs for cooking solutions.
Stoves, fuel products, and fuel production and delivery products can be submitted with an online form. For each of these, users can provide a photograph, description, manufacturer, and a number of different specifications and features. Users can also submit testing data such as compositional analyses or fuel property tests within the fuel product submission form. There is a separate test results submission form for results of stove and fuel performance and safety. This form accepts testing data for eight test protocols using Excel templates available on the Alliance website. Test results from other protocols can be submitted to Catalog as well.
The Catalog is a living resource and future versions will evolve as the state of the sector evolves. To continue the Catalog’s role as a useful and comprehensive resource to the clean cooking sector, we encourage our partners to submit both products and testing data using the Catalog’s online submission forms. We look forward to your submissions!