A FILIPINO scientist has developed clean cooking fuel alternatives for Filipino homes, the Department of Science and Technology said.

Dr. Fiorello Abenes, a Balik Scientist hosted by the Mariano Marcos State University, will lead the technology transfer and commercialization of the university’s Village-Scale Nipahol technology— an innovation produced from extracting sap from Nipa at a facility at the National Bioenergy Research and Innovation Center of the MMSU.

Abenes is a professor emeritus in CalPoly Pomona University in California, USA.

“Dirty cooking is still a problem in many of the rural areas of the Philippines. The use of firewood or charcoal emit unhealthy levels of particulates and noxious gases that affect the respiratory track, mostly affecting women. Ethanol as cooking fuel is cleaner,” he said.

“We have developed a prototype that we hope we can scale up and make into a cooking stove suitable for indoor use and in commercial establishments,” he added.

Abenes and his team at MMSU invented a nipahol-fueled stove that could replace LPG stove. The nipahol-fueled stove functions through the pull of gravity.

“The successful adoption of MMSU’s VSNT rests on finding more uses for the ethanol produced from nipa. The use of Nipahol as cooking fuel will accelerate the commercialization of the VSNT technology,” the DOST said.

The DOST’s Balik Scientist Program aims to promote information exchange and accelerate the flow of new technology into the country by strengthening the scientific and technological resources of the academe and public and private institutions.

The program encourages Filipino scientists, technologists, and experts to return to the Philippines and share their expertise to promote scientific, agro-industrial, and economic development.