Berkeley Air organized a study to quantify the indoor air pollution impacts (CO, PM_2.5) and fuel savings of fuel switching from non-renewable coal to renewable biomass using semi-gasifier stoves in rural households of Shanxi Province, China.

The study was being conducted in partnership with Impact Carbon, China Association of Rural Energy Industry (CAREI), the University of California at Berkeley (UCB), and Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT).

Specific objectives included:

• conducting a randomized paired household study of indoor air quality in homes using traditional coal stoves (pre-intervention) and new biomass corncob-based semi-gasifier stoves (post-intervention).
• providing an illustrative case study of the potential health effects of utilizing carbon finance to disseminate semi-gasifier stoves in rural China.
• testing whether the potential to reduce indoor air pollution that this class of semi-gasifier stoves demonstrated in lab tests done for the Chinese stove competition can be replicated in the field.
• illuminating potential trade-offs for health and climate from international climate policy choices.

Links:

• China Association of Rural Energy Industry
• Impact Carbon