A 26 year-old Nigerian, Max Chinnah and graduate of the Wartburg College in Iowa, United States has invented a smokeless cookstove that he has patented, along with his Ghanaian partner, Godwin Attigah.

The company they founded Terraoak, is set to mass manufacture the stove and launch a global sales. “We’re on a mission to push back against these global threats in order to ensure a greener future for the next generation!”, the company said on its Facebook page.

Here is Chinnah’s story as told to wcfcourier.com:

Max Chinnah knows too well the health hazards of cooking over open fires.

It’s a common practice in his homeland of Nigeria and led to respiratory ailments that claimed his grandmother’s life.

But the 26-year-old Wartburg College graduate now hopes his portable and smokeless cookstove will someday help save lives around the planet.

Terraoak Inc., a company Chinnah founded with fellow Wartburg alumnus Godwin Attigah, is preparing a sales launch this fall for their stove, which converts heat into electricity and outputs it through a USB jack to charge a phone or other small electronic device.

“We are deeply committed to making this dream a reality because it’s a big problem and something we’ve experienced personally,” Chinnah said. “For us it’s very real and raw and very personal.”

The young entrepreneurs initially are marketing Genesys to camping and outdoor recreation enthusiasts but hope to scale up production internationally. Based on the level of early sales, Terraoak already has an arrangement with the World Wide Fund for Nature to give away 1,000 stoves to farmers in rural Kenya.

https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2019/10/03/nigerian-max-chinnah-invents-smokeless-cookstove/amp/