Qualcomm helps develop SootSwap for healthier cookstoves in rural India

Approximately three billion people depend on traditional cookstoves for their cooking needs. A study reveals that four million people die every year as a result of inhaling the smoke produced by cooking over these open fires.

SootSwap provides an affordable, reliable, cell phone-based, monitoring device to enable widespread participation in a voluntary carbon market when individuals use clean cookstoves versus traditional biomass burning cookstoves.

The SootSwap system includes a mobile phone-based temperature-sensing application and a thermal sensor that connects to a BREW (an operating system of Qualcomm) CDMA or Android phone. Then the phone sends it back to the server, which helps to measure the smoke emission of the cooking stove.

"We are doing the pilot project in Varanasi and one or two districts in Bihar. The focus of the project will be on monitoring carbon count," Shawn A. Covell, vice president, government affairs, Qualcomm said.

The pilot project will take around six months to get completed.

The project was initiated to support Project Surya, a global multi-organization initiative focused on helping to mitigate climate change by replacing traditional cookstoves with cleaner technologies using an innovative sensing application.

Qualcomm will execute the project through Qualcomm Wireless Reach along with Nexleaf Analytics, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Britain's Department of International Development.

It is expected that SootSwap will help in energy security, climate security and financial inclusion.