GlobalResolve: Reducing Pollution in Ghana Using Smart Business

GlobalResolve is an interdisciplinary social entrepreneurship initiative at Arizona State University that is dedicated to involving students and international partners in projects that improve the lives of underprivileged people. For example, one initiative was to help reduce the indoor pollution problem which occurs in many developing countries, due to the smoke created when using coal or wood indoors as fuel. Ghana is a country in West Africa in which this type of pollution is a serious problem, with more that 96 percent of its population using solid fuels. When traveling by plane in Ghana, you can actually see a thick smoky haze hovering over the cities.

According to the World Health Organization, "cooking and heating with solid fuels such as dung, wood, agricultural residues or coal is likely to be the largest source of indoor air pollution globally. When used in simple cooking stoves, these fuels emit substantial amounts of pollutants, including respirable particles, carbon monoxide, nitrogen and sulfur oxides, and benzene."

The GlobalResolve Team is currently focusing their attention on the development of a fermented, corn-based, gelled ethanol that can be used instead of the solid fuels. They are also in the process of creating an affordable companion smokeless stove prototype that will be able to burn the gelled ethanol efficiently. Because the goal is to help villages start self-contained businesses, the stoves and gel fuel are going to need to use only local resources in Ghana that can be fabricated, marketed and sold to the nearby communities.

Currently, GlobalResolve is managing four village projects involving water, energy and health-related issues in four villages in Ghana. We spoke with Brad and Mark about these current projects in Ghana, and how they are setting the stage to minimize a good portion of the pollution which has become a major health concern among most of the villagers.

Interview with Brad Rogers and Mark Henderson of GlobalResolve

Tell us what the GlobalResolve project is all about?

Mark Henderson: Global Resolve is a program at ASU whose purpose is to develop sustainable business ventures for villages in developing countries. There are other organizations that work in villages and developing countries and solve problems. A difference with GlobalResolve is that we take a step further and not only help solve problems, but also help develop a village business around that solution.

We partner with a couple organizations, one is Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. We partner with their engineering college and their energy center to work on energy and water solutions in Ghana. We also partner with an organization called Kite. They do studies of cultures in businesses and energy solutions specifically in Ghana. Also we partner with the specific villages and their chief (known as the Nana).

Tell us a bit about the ethanol gel project going on in Ghana

Brad Rogers: The project that we have going on in the village of Domeabra involves the development of ethanol gel fuel for cooking. The way this project came about, is a group from ASU traveled to Ghana, visiting several villages. When we went to Domeabra and sat down with the villagers and the chief, Nana Frimpong Afoakwa, we talked about what their problems were. We were very aware of the problems with indoor air pollution, so we brought that up.

They said they had a pretty severe problem with wood smoke and respiratory illness. We brought up some potential solutions. One of those solutions we talked about was ethanol in general, and gelled ethanol in particular. The chief, who happened to be a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology understood very well what we were talking about. He said that if we can develop a system that will produce gel fuel, he could put some of his villagers to work producing it. They would have a business, and they would be helping people's health.

We went back to ASU and studied the problem and gave our engineering students the project of designing a gel fuel production facility. We built it in the 2007-2008 academic year. The system is capable of producing close to 100 liters of ethanol in a day if you can ferment that much biomass. Nana traveled here to Arizona last April, and we demonstrated the facility for him. After he left, we packed it up and shipped it to Ghana. In September of 2008 I traveled with a team of students to Ghana and we went out to the village of Domeabra and set the facility up and turned it over to the villagers.

How has the facility worked out so far?

BR: Right now they are producing ethanol in the village. We are trying to create the supply chain, so the thing that we are working the hardest on right now is to try to develop the most appropriate stoves that they can sell in this region. Most people earn a dollar a day or less, even in the urban areas, so everything that is done has to be designed to be extremely affordable. There are several stove designs out there that we are looking at. We are also developing some of our own.

We are trying to come up with a stove that is relatively efficient that we can produce for a few dollars and sell. Part of the economic competition is that people are cooking with wood and charcoal. Charcoal is costing families the equivalent of $0.30 a day. We have to make gelled ethanol competitive with that, especially in the urban areas in order to develop much of a market. Right now that is where the project is, we are trying to work on the economic viability and sustainability. We will be traveling back probably in June to hopefully complete the circle.

What about the business aspect of this venture?

BR: Yes, there is more to it than just the technologies, as they have to set up a business. You have to think of things, such as the supply chain and market acceptability. One thing we found by asking the villagers, is that they planned on selling the gel in the city and not using it themselves, since they have forests around them and can go get wood anytime they want. They have not really bought into reducing their pollution issue. That is okay for now, because we want to go where the market is the best. The plan is to be able to sell it in the city where there is no wood. We are hoping that we can reduce the air pollution in the city first and then once that takes hold, we'll work on the countryside.

MH: We have three graduate students working on modeling the supply chain for the gel fuel. We are concerned about growing, harvesting and transporting the crops, processing, packaging and distributing the gel fuel, , and then finally bringing the product to sale in the marketplace. Hewlett Packard uses an attractive model. They basically give away their printers and then they sell you ink. The ink is how they make money. One way we can help people afford the stoves, is to make the price so low, that the money is made later on the gel fuel.

Is there a way that our readers can help you bring this project to more people in need?

MH: We developing a donation mechanism on our website at http://globalresolve.asu.edu. We would also be happy to hear other ideas about indoor pollution solutions. We would also like to partner with other organizations who have certain expertise complimentary to ours. We are always looking for more students, although that is more of a local thing.

Tell us a little about your water purification project.

MH: In a village called Fawomanye, they have two problems. First, their lack of electricity limits their activity to the daytime. The ability to have have electric lights allows them to have a village social life in the evenings and not have go to bed at sundown. Second, they have no local water source other a salty well and a drainage pond full of pollutants. They have to walk two miles to the nearest potable water, and it is likely that water may be polluted as well. We are working on a system called the DEWVAP which evaporates the dirty water and recondenses it as distillate for use. A routine still can do that, but this system uses a lot less energy than a still, which is important for these villages because they have limited energy. It also has to be straightforward to operate and relatively maintenance-free. In the meantime, we used donations from local churches to distribute 400 water filters to the village last September. There are pictures of that on the website.

BR: Once people realized that the filters were there, we had kind of a run on the village. There is no other way to say this, they were drinking sewage, but now have water that is much safer.

Thank you Brad and Mark for taking the time out to share your business development program which is going to make the lives of the villagers in Ghana healthier and more prosperous!