EPA awards Cottage Grove, Oregon, company $300K for innovative clean-burning cookstove
ASAT Inc. will use funds to commercialize a clean-burning cookstove for cooking, heating, and low-cost source of power
SEATTLE – (RealEstateRama) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a $300,000 contract award to ASAT Inc., based in Cottage Grove, Oregon to complete development of an innovative clean-burning cooking stove. ASAT Inc. is among five other companies receiving a total of $1.8 million in EPA funding for small businesses to develop technologies that provide solutions for environmental issues.
“Small businesses are not only essential to the American economy, but they also produce some of our best, cutting-edge technologies,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “Through this funding, these companies will create jobs and create value in the marketplace, all while developing innovations that protect the environment and human health.”
The companies announced today are receiving Phase II contracts from EPA’s Small Business Innovation Research or SBIR program, which awards contracts annually through a two-phase competition. Companies compete for a Phase I award of $100,000 by submitting research that addresses key environmental issues. After receiving a Phase I award, companies are eligible to compete for a Phase II award of $300,000 to further develop and commercialize their technology. The recipients of these Phase II awards will now work to bring their products to market.
EPA is awarding a Phase II SBIR contract of $300,000 to ASAT Inc., of Cottage Grove, Oregon. The company will use the funds to commercialize a clean-burning, biomass-fueled cookstove for cooking, heating, and as a low-cost source of power.
“ASAT Inc. and other small businesses are not only an essential part of our economy, they are also producing some of our best, cutting-edge technologies,” said EPA Region 10 Administrator Chris Hladick. “With EPA funding, this company will provide an important and highly useful innovation to help protect community health and the environment.”
“ASAT Inc. is very pleased to receive support to create a new affordable Integrated Stove that burns wood very cleanly, protecting health, while heating a house and cooking food effectively and efficiently,” said Dean Still, Owner and CEO of ASAT Inc. “The new thermoelectric generator provides electricity from heat for lighting and charging of modern cell phones and an improved catalytic converter system burns up the smoke that escapes the combustion chamber.”
Many currently available biomass heating/cooking stoves used in rural areas do not efficiently cook food or heat homes and consume too much fuel. These older cookstoves also emit harmful air pollution that can contribute to asthma and other respiratory illnesses. ASAT specializes in the development and manufacturing of clean burning biomass cookstoves. In SBIR Phase I, the company developed a low emission, fuel efficient integrated heating/cooking stove for market testing in China and in the U.S.
In SBIR Phase II, ASAT will develop and manufacture an optimized, lower cost, 15W thermoelectric generator and an affordable catalytic converter begun in Phase I. This new biomass fueled cookstove will deliver clean-burning cooking, heating, lighting, and charging of cell phones. The integrated cookstove will meet the 2020 EPA heating stove PM 2.5 standard and the 2015 WHO intermediate indoor air guidelines. ASAT will market test and then sell the integrated cookstove in the U.S., in China through an existing distribution network, and potentially in Africa with BURN Manufacturing. Learn more about ASAT’s integrated cookstove project at: https://go.usa.gov/xnSNv.
According to the World Health Organization, cookstove smoke is a major contributor to indoor air pollution in developing countries causing millions of respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses and premature deaths annually. Nearly half of the people in the world still depend on the burning of biomass (wood, charcoal, crop residues, and dung) in rudimentary cookstoves or open fires to cook their food. People in developing countries, primarily women and children, are exposed to smoke with high concentrations of pollutants such as fine particles composed of toxic compounds. Health studies show that exposure to cookstove smoke contributes to a wide range of illnesses such as and low-birth weight in children, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia, and heart disease in adults, especially women who are disproportionately exposed in their homes. Learn more: https://www.epa.gov/air-research/clean-cookstove-research.
EPA is one of 11 federal agencies that participate in the SBIR program to strengthen the role of small businesses in federal research and development, create jobs, and promote U.S. technologies. Eligible companies must be for-profit U.S. business with fewer than 500 employees. See all of EPA’s SBIR Phase II recipients at: 2018 SBIR Phase II Grant Awards. Learn more about EPA’s SBIR program at www.epa.gov/sbir.
Learn more information about EPA’s Pacific Northwest and Alaska region at: www.epa.gov/epa-region-10-pacific-northwest.
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