Economic use of termites, anyone?

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

THERE’S a group in Tabuk City, Kalinga who looks for termite mounds to demolish. They are not pest exterminators. On the contrary, instead of looking for the queen and king of the termites to kill them and in effect, put an end to the colony, these men are careful not to harm the royalty of the mound. They dig carefully and upon finding the queen and king, they hide them in the diswemboweled mound so that they could pick up the pieces of the life of the colony again.

Johnny Langnga, the leader of the diggers, along with his wife Anastacia, are listed in the patent issued by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) for a one-burner and a two-burner stoves molded from termite mound clay mixed with rice hulls. Also included in the patent are couple Alexander and Raquel Dulliyao, Edna Yumol, Norfredo Dulay and Rumualdo Wacas. Raquel, Yumol, Dulay and Wacas are all academic personnel of the Kalinga-Apayao State College in the city while Alexander is in charge of the livelihood section of the office of Congressman Manuel Agyao.

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Racquel Dulliyao said that the patent are for the utility models and industrial designs of both the stoves . She explained that while the certificate has not yet been issued pending the six-months publication of the patent application and a grace period of two months more, the stoves have already been given registry numbers which means that there were no products with the same specifications based on records of the IPO and that the office will no longer accept products with the same specifications.

Racquel claimed that among other advantages, the stoves are environmentally-friendly due to their marked efficiency in the use of wooden fuel and their minimal smoke emission. They claim that two 3-inch diameter and 18 inches long firewood could cook rice and viand which they say can be done because almost all the energy contained in the wood is converted to heat through the stove’s perfect combustion capability. She said that this is a score for the environment because it slows down the cutting down of trees for fuel.

“Compared to other kinds of stoves which makes use of wood, the ashes left from the burning is very minimal. The efficient use of the fuel through the principle of aerodynamics is also the reason why the stove has minimal smoke and is virtually soot-free. There is no need to clean the outside of cooking pots and you can cook inside the house without fear of the walls and ceiling being blackened with soot,” Racquel said.

This writer found that these claims of the originators of the stoves approximate reality when he witnessed Carlito Laurean, director of the Highland Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium, heat some water in his single-burner termite clay stove installed in his garage. Except for the minimal soot on the inside surface of the hat of the chimney, there was no evidence of soot on the wall a foot away from the stove. There is a little soot on one side of the stainless vessel he uses to heat the water but, according to Laurean, that is only because the pothole of the stove does not exactly fit the bottom of the vessel allowing some fire to come through. He claimed he has not washed the vessel since he started using the stove in September of last year.

“I grew up with the conventional wood stove and the termine stove is great advancement. Cooking is convenient as there is no need to blow into the coals to get the fire going again. The moment the wood burns, it keeps burning until the fuel burns out. You cannot feel the heat as it contained inside the stove. There is no soot. The little smoke it emits all pass through the chimney so that surfaces near the cooking area are not blackened. It is more economic in fuel compared the conventional stove,” Laurean, who was instrumental in the sale of three units to his relatives in Pangasinan, and several more to other acquaintences, said.

Rosely Garin, an officemate of Laurean who bought a single burner after she heard of the good performance of the stove of Laurean, said that during weekends when the family has time to spare, they no longer use their LPG stove.

The Dulliyaos believe that just like Laurean and Garin, all their customers numbering more than a 100 since the group started producing in February 2011 are content with the performance of the product since they have not yet receive any complaints. They claim that what is coming in are orders from in and outside the province particularly Baguio City and that their production cannot cope with the demand.

At the moment, Langnga and his three sons and two nephews, are producing at the rate of six double-burners a day. However, work at the 600 square meters-space production area which is a part of an old idle building inside the National Irrigation Administration compound in barangay Bulanao here has stopped because the floor space can no longer accommodate more stoves for curing. Presently, 60 two-burner stoves in different stages of curing lie on the floor and while waiting for them to be shipped to the waiting buyers, the Langngas spend their time experimenting with new designs one of which they claim could cook faster than an LPG stove and of course, raiding termite mound for their special molding material.

The Langngas say that termite mounds are vastly superior to other clay because they are pure and contain no pebbles and sand and is also more malleable. The Dulliyaos fully agree with the conclusion that termite mound is just right for stove purposes and could explain why. After months of research in government and private institutions early last year, Raquel and her fellow academicians in the group found the scientific explanation to the idealness of termite mounds for stove construction. Subjecting the soil to the processo of X-ray diffraction, they discovered that the material contains the minerals plagioclase, quartz, mica and amphibole which properties account for the strength, special hardness, durability, elasticity and heat-holding and withstanding capacity of the stoves.

Raquel also told this writer that when scientifically analyzed with clay soil from Iguig town in Cagayan, which is famous for its thriving pottery industry, it was established that the termite mound could still be malleable at 16 percent moisture content while the latter material has an elastic limit at 21.6 percent moisture content which means beyond that point, it already crumbles.

The patentees admit that making use of termite mound which by the way is not only associated with the insidious destruction of wooden structures but likewise with some native superstitions is not their discovery.

Neither is the design of the stove. According to Langnga, he was introduced to the particular stove technology during a serminar sponsored by the Mandiga Ob-obbo, a local non-government organization, sometime in the late 90s. Their teacher who was from Pangasinan had told them that the idea of using termite mound as a construction material was discovered in India where they made bricks out of it. Langnga though could not remember the teacher mentioning the source of the design.

With the intention of mass producing the stoves, the Langngas, together with some fellow residents of Magaogao, Pinukpuk, Kalinga, formed the Kalinga Clay Molders Association. However, the other members were soon discouraged and stopped production because it was hard to sell the stoves due to so many defects foremost of which is the erosion of the rims of the potholes and the wrong trajectory of the heat.

“I did not give up because I felt that there is something in the stove. I soon found the solution to the erosion of the rims of the pot and fire holes and was able to sell some of my output. Due to our limited resources, however, my family did not have the capacity to produce commercially. So we decided to ask assistance from Congressman Agyao in 2010,” Langnga said.

Thus entered Alexander into the scene. He related that when he first saw the stoves of the Langngas, he became interested right away because he himself has been experimenting with stoves using concrete materials to answer the complaints of the women of their church assigned to cook during occasions. The initial agreement was for the Langngas to produce some units for display during the Ullalim Festival in February 2011 which they complied with.

“We were astounded because we received 60 orders during the fair. This prompted us (office of Agyao) to assist them by giving them a grinding machine to facilitate the pounding of the termite earth into powder and some small implements. We also arranged for the renting of the NIA building as shop,” Alexander said.

At around this point and through the facilitation of Alexander, the project tapped the services of the KASC Institute of Business Administration and Entrepreneurship research arm headed by Raquel.

The researchers zeroed in on product research, development and commercialization. The collaboration of the Langngas, the office of the Agyao and KASC IBAE research soon led to improvements in the design of the product.

With Alexander’s research on the aerodynamics, the humps of the stoves were reangled maximizing efficiency. The tilted chimney was made vertical for easier positioning of the stove. Consciousness for aesthetics was also introduced into the production process with the usage of rivets to form GI sheets into chimney pipes. Earlier, the pipes were held in place by wire wound around them.

And the KASC personnel in the team also sought scientific explanations as to how come termite earth is perfect for the stove and also how come the stove is more efficient that the convention stove. This paved the way for the patenting of the product and likewise the entry of the stove in the 2011 Invention Contest cum Exhibit staged by the Department of Science and Technology on September 27-29, 2011 at the Benguet State University in La Trinidad, Benguet. They won the contest entitling them to move on to the national level of the search to be held sometime in July.

Their initial success in the market is just the beginning as the team plans to expand their production which then gives rise to the question of availability of material. Alexander estimates that if the rate of production reaches 200 double burners a month, they would need from 150-200 termite mounds a month. He concludes that up to that point, there is still enough material resource in the province. In anticipation of the production outstripping the source of the termite earth, however, the Dulliyaos are now mulling the possible establishment of a termite mound garden somewhere in the city.

The Dulliyaos say there is so much to be done just like experimenting with a model that will use rice hull to take advantage of the abundance of the material in this farming locality. At any rate and even with the contestability still to officially lapse this April at the latest, the patentees glory in the fact that they have raised the industrial applicability of the termite mound stove concept to a level when it is being recognized by concerned government bodies and more importantly, being appreciated by users. They are proud that they can lay claim to producing something useful from the mound which is detested and dreaded the world over for its inhabitants’ unmitigated hostility to wooden human structures.

By the way, the single burner costs P2,000.00 while the two-burner is priced at P2,500.00 both exclusive of freight. The price may look relatively expensive compared to convential stoves but through time, the amount could be offset through savings in fuel. Furthermore, it is hard to place a price tag on the cooking and cleaning convenience. People with termite colonies in their lots could reduce the price by around P300.00 by the selling the mound to Langnga and his boys. According to Langnga, an average mound be made into two two-burner stoves with the raw material per unit costing an average of P150.00.