This article contains paid for content produced in collaboration with Titan.
KOKO Networks in East Africa has created a scalable solution to the dirty fuels problem. The clean ethanol specialist’s distribution model uses bioethanol as an ultra-clean, cheap and safe alternative to the more traditional cooking fuels of charcoal and paraffin. And its solutions incorporate Titan’s NSF-Approved 800 series flowmeters.
Designed and built by KOKO Networks (Nairobi), the KOKO Point vending machine dispenses ethanol and is part of an elegant solution to a widespread problem in African cities: Getting cheap, safe fuel into homes to use for cooking. Across Africa, where electricity connections are patchy and mains gas non-existent, cooking fuel has been dominated by charcoal and paraffin, both of which emit fumes and soot, contributing to thousands of premature deaths every year. Made from corn or sugar cane, ethanol is much safer but can be hard to package and transport.
KOKO Networks has installed over 2,000 KOKO Point vending machines to date in corner stores across Kenya, including Mombasa and Nairobi. Drawn by the alure of this safe, clean cooking fuel, customers dispense it into reusable KOKO fuel bottles and, once at home, they connect the bottles to KOKO-designed twin-hob stoves, which have an airlock to limit fumes and prevent spillage.
Neil Hannay, Senior R&D Engineer at Titan Enterprises commented: “We were approached by KOKO Networks to work with them on this life changing development for African families. KOKO Networks required a highly reliable and inexpensive flow meter capable of precisely dispensing batches of ethanol cooking fuel. As a result of our joint development, at the heart of each KOKO Point ethanol vending machine is a precision Pelton wheel turbine flowmeter that rotates freely on robust sapphire bearings, combining materials and technology to ensure a long-life product with reliable operation throughout.”
Titan’s NSF-Approved 800 series turbine flow meters are ideally suited for applications requiring both food hygiene and precision flow measurement.
