NEWS Millions of households in Africa still cook on smoky, inefficient stoves that harm both health and the environment. In his doctoral thesis at Umeå University, Natxo García-López shows how improved cookstoves and bioenergy systems can make a real difference, for people and for the environment.
Participants at a workshop in the village of Rusagara, Rwanda. Natxo García-López presented results from one of the studies.
ImageNatxo García-López.The work is challenging and complex
“The work is challenging and complex, but through interdisciplinary projects in Africa we can create cleaner air, better health, and a more sustainable energy future,” says Natxo García-López, PhD student at the Department at of Applied Physics and Electronics at Umeå University.
Access to clean and reliable energy remains a major challenge in rural sub-Saharan Africa. Millions of families still use traditional and inefficient cookstoves, which pollute homes with smoke, cause respiratory illness, place heavy burdens on women who collect firewood, and contribute to environmental degradation. In his doctoral thesis at Umeå University, Natxo García-López examines how more sustainable bioenergy solutions can address these challenges.
His work combines laboratory studies, field experiments in Rwanda, systematic reviews, and a perspective study that explores new bioenergy approaches. The findings highlight the value of improved cookstoves, which burn more efficiently and reduce both emissions and health risks. Still, García-López’s research extends beyond stoves to integrated energy solutions. In his thesis, he broadens the perspective to the community level, examining how bioenergy can be scaled and integrated into broader frameworks of rural development and energy access.
By integrating agroforestry with bioenergy, he outlines a model in which farmland serves more than its traditional role of producing food. Sustainably managed trees and crops can supply households with cleaner cooking fuel while also generating surplus biomass for electricity production through gasification. In this way, everyday cooking becomes directly connected to rural development, energy security and access to modern energy services.
“It’s a blueprint for scalable, community-level energy solutions,” he says.
Conducting research in rural Rwanda was demanding, both logistically and scientifically. It involved traveling to remote areas, working with limited resources, and operating advanced instruments under difficult conditions. At the same time, it created opportunities to work closely with local communities and to collect data directly from rural households, offering valuable insights into their everyday challenges.
“It gave me a first-hand understanding of the challenges rural households and of how cleaner technologies can truly make a difference,” says García-López.
Although the thesis devotes considerable attention to the technical analysis of combustion processes, emissions and particles, its implications reach far beyond engineering. It sheds light on the everyday realities of people in rural Africa, particularly the lack of access to modern energy services such as clean cooking and electricity. The findings also resonate with several pressing global challenges – from public health and gender equality to climate change and environmental sustainability.
“Cleaner cookstoves can make indoor environments safer, reduce disease risks, and help preserve both forests and climate,” says García-López.
Beyond the technical contributions, García-López hopes that his work can spark dialogue among decision-makers and practitioners. Its true impact will depend on how it is received by the research community, policymakers, NGOs and other actors, but his ambition is that it will make a positive difference for people in rural sub-Saharan Africa who remain without access to modern energy services.
While the dissertation provides new evidence and technical insights, it also opens the door to future research directions. García-López sees his work not as an endpoint but as the beginning of a broader research journey, one that blends technological innovation with real-world application in countries with developing economies.
García-López during fieldwork in the village of Rusagara, Rwanda. Data collection with advanced instruments in rural environments involves many challenges.
ImageSabine IngabireOn Friday 19 September, Natxo García-López defends his thesis titled: "Toward cleaner cooking and energy security in rural Africa: assessing sustainable bioenergy systems, biomass cookstove emissions, and particle properties" at the Department of Applied Physics and Electronics at Umeå University.
The dissertation takes place at 09.00 in Aula Biologica (BIO.E.203) and Faculty opponent is docent Aneta Wierzbicka from Lund University.
