Partner Spotlight: ECOFOGÃO Ltda
ECOFOGÃO is a Brazilian company that has manufactured ecostoves since 2004. The company inherited its basic knowledge about constructing ecostoves from PROLEÑA/Nicaragua.
In Brazil, ecostoves are manufactured in a reinforced concrete frame and local components already available in the market are used to assemble the stoves, such as chimneys (galvanized or stainless steel), griddles and grates (cast iron), insulation (ceramic wool), and combustion chambers (refractory ceramic). The stoves are produced in Minas Gerais state in central southeastern Brazil, packed in wood frames, and shipped all over the country.
The company began operations in order to supply the 6 million low income households in Brazil that makes use of biomass as their primary cooking fuel , although there are an additional 3 million middle class households in Brazil that also make use of wood stoves for recreational use, such as cooking with friends and family on weekends and holidays. Ecofogão serves both markets, low income and recreational use, with four different models. All models consume a maximum of 1.3 kg of fuelwood per hour, which represents a reduction of 50 to 70% of wood consumption in relation to traditional Brazilian wood stoves. Studies with similar ecostoves in Nicaragua by Berkeley Air Monitoring Group indicated reductions of at least 80% in emissions of household air pollution.
For recreational use most sales are done on our website, www.ecofogao.com.br, while sales for low income families are done through contracts with government and NGOs with bulk sales in the hundreds of units.
The development of a robust stove has taken many years of research, and greater improvements in efficiency and cleanliness are foreseen in the future. Ecofogão has innovated with the introduction of stainless steel ovens and chimneys, and water heaters for bath and kitchen, accessories which are commonly sold with more expensive models like the eco-oven, although water heater and stainless steel chimneys are also possible to be built into low cost models.
Since the dissemination of cleaner stoves for low income households has not been a priority for development in Brazil, Ecofogão has partnered with the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves to raise the profile of this topic in Brazil. Furthermore Ecofogão also recently partnered with the two other Alliance partners in Brazil, PROLENHA and CEPAN, to organize the First Brazilian Seminar on Ecological Stoves (cleaner and efficient stoves), which will happen July 11-12 in the city of Recife. At this seminar stove practitioners and decision makers will gather to review experiences so far and plan new actions and initiatives to increase the profile of and access to ecological stoves for low income households.
Ecofogão for recreational use