Leyte’s plant oil stove catches interest of PNOC-AFC chair

By Philippine Information Agency (PIA 8)
August 30, 2007

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte  –  Always on the look-out for alternative sources of fuel, Secretary Renato Velasco, chairman of the board of the Philippine National Oil Company-Alternative Fuels Corporation, learned about and became interested in Leyte’s Protos, a stove which makes use of plant oil.

Chairman’s Velasco has a good reason to be enthusiastic. After requesting a friend in Leyte to buy one for him, Chairman Velasco is now a proud owner of Protos stove which is now being manufactured and marketed in the province of Leyte, a cost-saving alternative for cooking because it is powered by plant oil such as that of coconut, jatropha or “tuba-tuba”, soya bean, corn, golden shower, talisay, peanut, cotton, sunflower and many more. 

Chairman Velasco is indeed very committed to his work at the PNOC-ADF which is primary mandate is to explore, develop and accelerate the utilization and commercialization of alternative fuels in the country.

Protos plant oil stove is an answer not only to the worries and headaches of households due to soaring price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, it is also an answer to the worldwide concerns on the health of the people and on the protection of the environment.

Plant oil stove is more economical to use than LPG. Based on the experience of pilot households, a typical family of five can consume about P185 worth of fuel in a month’s time.  In contrast, the same family using LPG would spend approximately P300 per month on fuel. The initial cost of purchasing the Protos unit is comparable to the price of an LPG-powered stove with an empty tank.

An unapparent advantage is when the stove runs out of fuel, the housewife can continue to cook in Protos with only 1 liter of coconut oil worth P28 while an LPG user needs to purchase one whole tank worth almost P500.  This feature of Protos Stove is a big help to the minimal wage earners.

The family can even extract their own plant oil from coconut which is abundant in the country or from jatropha which is now what Secretary Velasco and the PNOC-Alternative Fuels Corporation, is currently advocating.

The health and environmental concerns are not only because of the continues burning of fossil-based fuels that resulted to global warming. The fact remains that there are still more than three billion people all over the world who continue to depend on solid fuels including biomass fuels like wood, dung, agricultural residues, and coal for their energy needs.

Cooking and heating with solid fuels on open fires or traditional stoves result in high levels of indoor air pollution. Besides, the very low heat utilization efficiency of open fire cooking of about 5% to 10% of the ever-growing population in developing countries have resulted to high consumption of firewood that lead to the destruction of forests which in turn cause serious ecological problems like soil erosion, desertification and flooding, among others.

As forests are denuded, collection of firewood becomes more time-consuming and more expensive than the food to be cooked.

With the Protos Stove, gas emissions of Carbon Dioxide and other hydrocarbons are significantly reduced and heat utilization efficiency is higher by about 30% to 40%.

Thus, Protos Stove, which was developed by the Plant Oil Technology Center of the Visayas State University in Baybay City, Leyte, is a healthful, ecological and economical cooking alternative.

The Visayas State University has established the technology and equipment for processing plant oil at the village level and has proven the use of different plant oils and used vegetable oil as fuel of the Protos Stove.