Gas shortage: NERD relaunches line of stoves as solution

By Ifham Nizam

The National Engineering Research and Development Centre (NERD) yesterday re-launched a line of stoves it has developed as a solution to the current kerosene and gas shortages.

NERD Deputy Director (Services) Eng. A. A. S. P. Jayasinghe said the NERD stoves were fuelled with biomass, and they were an ideal solution for the LP gas and kerosene shortages.

Eng. Parakrama Jayasinghe, a past President of the Bio Energy Association of Sri Lanka and former Board Member NERD said change was essential.

He observed that the government could not reduce gas prices, as prices were going up worldwide, and at the same time the Rupee was depreciating.

“Charcoal and fuel wood supply is a new market,” he said, adding that countrywide Vidatha Centres should have samples, and the Anagi Lipa, developed by them, was one of the best stoves and still available at affordable prices.

The Anagi Lipa, introduced when gas prices increased, on a previous occasion, was still very much in use in rural areas. It has the proven advantage of much higher combustion efficiency in comparison to the traditional three-stone furnace. This well-designed and proven model has the great advantage of feasibility of the manufacture by the village potter at a very nominal cost.

“The value of this most effective and very low-cost innovation cannot be overstated for those who have the ready access to fuel wood, perhaps,” Jayasinghe added.