Lo Trau

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The Lo Trau stove
The Lo Trau stove

Lò Trấu is a type of versatile fuel burning cooking stove used in Vietnam since the 1950s.

Contents

[edit] Etymology

The name Lo Trau (Lò Trấu in Vietnamese comes from the words of Lò (stove) and Trấu (rice husk).

[edit] History and design

The timeline of the development of the Lo Trau is unclear, however it is known that the Lo Trau has been in use in Vietnam at least since the 1950s. The fixed version Lo Trau stove is thought to be strongly related to the Castrol stove design of the French architect François Cuvilliés in 1735 and similar European designs in the 1830s, with flue pipes connected to the chimney, oven holes into which concentric iron rings on which the pots were placed. Depending on the size of the pot or the heat needed, one could remove the inner rings. A recent innovation is the portable Lo Trau. Its compact design and efficient operation has been the target of a number of studies.[1][2][3][4][5] Recently it has been distributed in the Negros area of the Philippines in the The Southern Negros Sustainable Agriculture Demonstration Projects in the 1990s [6]. This relatively late uptake of apparently long-used innovation means the potential of rice husk as fuel has been overlooked by many for a long time, as well as the obscurity of the Lo Trau designs to the wider world.

The portable Lo Trau stove
The portable Lo Trau stove


[edit] Operation

The stove is started by burning easily ignited material such as bundle of coconut leaves, newspaper partially embedded in the rice husks or other fuels in the combustion chamber area. After the fire is established, the updraft air from the stove designs will quickly sustain and magnify the combustion. The rate of combustion is regulated by removing appropriate amount of ash from under the combustion area with a poker, thus enable more fuel to enter.

[edit] Fuel

Contrary to the name, the Lo Trau is quite versatile. It can burn wood chips, saw dust, small branches, small logs (with reduced heat controlling ability) and leaves.

[edit] Efficiency

Open fire has four major disadvantages : It is dangerous, it produces much smoke, soot blackens the cookware, and the heat efficiency is poor. The enclosed design of the Lo Trau means complete combustion of the fuel, better use of the heat that it generated and thus reduce the fuel consumption by its furnace-like burning generated by the updraft through the chimney. Due to its furnace-like operation, most fuel will burned thoroughly into fine ashes with almost no waste. In situ test findings showed that it took only 5 minutes to boil water using an approximate 180g of rice husk. This figure is impressive when compared to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), fuel wood, and charcoal stoves, which required 5, 15, and 20 minutes respectively to boil the same amount of water. It should also be noted that at the present time both wood and charcoal fires are frequently ignited using kerosene, a cost that would be eliminated with the rice husk stove.[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Rice Hull Stoves - LoTrau, Mayon, IRRI
  2. ^ British Library Direct: Order Details
  3. ^ FAOBIB
  4. ^ Stoves Archive for February 2002
  5. ^ Mayon Turbo Stove
  6. ^ Rice Hull Stoves - LoTrau, Mayon, IRRI
  7. ^ Rice Hull Stoves - LoTrau, Mayon, IRRI

[edit] External links