Erikoodu Briquette: Project Capture by Design Impact

THE

ERIKOODU CHARCOAL BRIQUETTE PROJECT

Project Overview The Erikoodu Briquette Project aims to improve respiratory health and reduce indoor air pollution through the introduction of an alternative fuel source to replace wood or kerosene.

DID YOU KNOW? The Erikoodu Briquette has nineteen holes for a highy efficient, smokefree burn.

Usha N.

J. Elango Sekar

Partner Overview The Organization of Development Action Maintenance (ODAM) served as our community connection and implementing partner. ODAM is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that has provided social services in Tamil Nadu, India for over a decade. Their programs focus on childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s education, female empowerment, environmental awareness, and agricultural development; just to name a few. The Erikoodu Briquette Project: Copyright 2013: Design Impact

Charcoal Production ODAM was interested in making briquettes from waste charcoal created in local charcoal production. They wanted to create rural employment opportunities through this sustainable health intervention.

DID YOU KNOW? sticks + hay + dirt + five days = a pile of charcoal!

Charcoal production is a major business in rural south India. It is produced from an invasive tree species and is processed in inefficient traditional kilns.

Initial User Research After understanding the basics of the briquette project, we started talking with community members about cooking. This took place in many informal conversations, as well as through planned interviews and focus groups.

Insights NOT A RURAL PRODUCT. Initially ODAM wanted to offer the briquette in its rural areas of focus, but with easy access to free firewood, no one was buying. FASTER STARTS. Women could light a wood fire and start cooking in less than three minutes. The briquette took much longer to light, so we need to speed this up. FIRE TASTES GOOD. Many families suggested that food cooked on wood tasted better, making a switch more difficult to encourage. The Erikoodu Briquette Project: Copyright 2013: Design Impact

Initial Market Research In addition to direct user research, we looked into the Indian cooking fuel market in general. This was accomplished through direct on-theground retail research, as well as a great deal of secondary research.

Cooking Fuel Comparision

Fuel Cost per month* MJ/kg Wood Rs 0-315 15 Charcoal Briquette Rs 180 30 Kerosene Rs 190 44 LPG Rs 315 46

Insights A FRAGMENTED MARKET. The Indian cooking fuel market was complicated, with families using wood, dung, charcoal, kerosene, solar, and liquid petroleum (LPG). DIVERSE USAGE PATTERNS. Individual households would use a variety of cooking fuels throughout the month and year. Switching between kerosene, LPG and wood depending on costs and conditions.

Cost LPG when out of LPG

Kerosene Charcoal when wet

FUEL IS CONNECTED TO STOVE. Most low-income Indian households have a traditional “chula” which is used for wood cooking. Other fuels each required a unique stove.

Briquette Design With a better understanding of user and market requirements we started developing an improved briquette. Our goals were to decrease lighting time, increase durability, and try to find ways to make the briquette more flexible in use.

Detail of the electronic testing probe. So hot!

In India, we produced several briquettes and experimented with a variety of physical and chemical prototypes. This included using additives like camphor, wax, sawdust, cardboard, cow dung, and kerosene. We also attempted physical changes such as increasing and decreasing hole density, increasing the bottom side surface area and changing the briquetteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s height.

A team of engineers at Kaleidoscope also developed briquette prototypes with a focus on making the burn time adjustable and improving the starting time. We tested all the briquettes against the original design through a simple water boiling test. In the end, we tweaked the formula to find the perfect balance between clay soil and charcoal to get a fast burn in a durable briquette.

DID YOU KNOW? The Erikoodu Briquette is not the best method for cooking hotdogs.

User Testing To test the improved briquette, we partnered with an organization in the nearby city of Madurai to complete in-home trials. We trained a group of young women in user research and sent them into 10 homes to test the briquette for one week.

Insights SMALL FAMILIES. The briquette was great for a family of four or five people. It doesn’t provide enough energy to cook for a larger family. STAY-AT-HOME MOMS. The briquette cooks slower than wood. Homes with two working parents saw this as a major detriment. Homes with a stay-at-home parent were less concerned about the slower cook time and were interested in the other advantages. MY POTS DON”T TURN BLACK. The major advantage of the briquette was that it didn’t turn pots black like wood does. It was also perceived as safer for children and more convenient to use. The Erikoodu Briquette Project: Copyright 2013: Design Impact

Operations Design The original briquette press allowed an individual to make one briquette in about six minutes and had no supporting equipment for larger batch production. Based on user insight we knew that the briquette needed to be sold for less than six rupees. This meant that we needed to triple our rate of production to provide a product that people could afford. DID YOU KNOW? The original briquette press was developed in Nepal for use in high elevations.

We started by focusing on the press. Because of the small start-up size of the business we chose not to automate production and developed a lever press that made repeated pressing less of a strain. After the press was developed we needed to design equipment for mixing the charcoal and drying the briquettes. These machines needed to match the production speed of the press.

Mixer

In addition to the equipment, we developed an operations process that allowed three employees to work in concert to manufacture 40 briquettes an hour.

Drying Racks

Briquette Press

Communications Design Based on the user testing and ongoing research we developed a brand mark and communications strategy for the briquette. The strategy focused on the primary benefits of safety, convenience, and cleanliness.

We chose to deploy one-color posters to promote the briquettes in target communities. This is a low cost and familiar method of communication in the region.

DID YOU KNOW? The briquette was named “Erikoodu” which means “burning nest” in Tamil.

Distribution Design We needed an effective way of getting the briquettes from our rural site of manufacture to urban consumers. We developed packaging that re-used the shipping box of a popular local cracker and that could be easily transported by truck or carried by an individual.

DID YOU KNOW? Users saw the heavy cardboard packaging as a product benefitâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it could be used to start the cooking fire.

We recruited the leader of a womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s group to be our local distributor. She hosted weekly meetings of 5075 women who fit our consumer profile. And, she was happy to sell the briquettes within this group. The Erikoodu Briquette Project: Copyright 2013: Design Impact

Business Structure The briquette is a low margin product and needs to be produced at a significant volume to generate significant profits. We completed a market study of Madurai and determined that there was a sufficient number of target consumers to support the briquette enterprise.

Market Potential for Erikoodu Market Size Total population in Madurai District 2,578,000 Percentage of Madurai District that is urban 56% Total urban population in Madurai District 1,443,680 Average houshold size 4 Total urban housholds in Madurai District 360,920 Percentage of households using firwood as main fuel 22% Total urban household using fire wood 79,402 Percentage of housholds where labor is main income 13% Total household in target market 10,322 Percentage of housholds adopting new product 60% Total potential erikoodu user households in Madurai 6,193 Potential for Growth Total housholds needed for Erikoodu profitability 600 Market penetration needed 9.69% Current profit margin on Erikoodu 0.2 INR Net profit at profitability base (per month) 3000 INR Net profit at 25% market penetration (per month) 7,741 INR Net profit at 50% market penetration (per month) 15,483 INR Net profit at 75% market penetration (per month) 23,225 INR

Project Outcomes We were able to secure a grant for ODAM that would support a three-month, 100 household pilot of the briquette. Unfortunately, the organization went through a financial crisis and was unable to implement the pilot.

+ Complete business plan developed and handed to ODAM for use in implementation.

+ Increased staff capacity for project management and creative problem solving.

+ $10,000 raised to fund pilot project.

+ Generation of over 1000 hours of paid rural employment.

Project Team DESIGN IMPACT: Kate Hanisian, Ramsey Ford, Adam Shaw, Paul Long ODAM: J. Elango, Usha N., J. Illavarsu, Seemai Chami, Nagalakshmi KALEIDOSCOPE: Bob Roth, Kory Gunnerson, Michael Roller, Vera Soper

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The partnership with DI has shown us the difference between scientific research and social design. After partnering with DI we now have the ability to use locally available resources to create tools that reduce the burden of the rural poor.â&#x20AC;? J. Elango, ODAM Secretary

Contact Ramsey Ford Design Director Design Impact ramsey@d-impact.org www.d-impact.org