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everal developing nations have engaged a group of German scientists to design a new cooking apparatus. Using plant oil as the main energy source, the stove called a Protos is a food production solution for citizens of tropical countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Ethiopia and Costa Rica which have abundant plantations.

Plant oil is renewable and generates lower carbon dioxide emissions compared to kerosene, firewood or charcoal. Not only is it environmentally friendly, this cooking device is also health friendly as it avoids indoor air pollution, high concentrations of carcinogens and stove explosions.

Moreover, the Indonesian government may save kerosene subsidies of up to 100 euro (US$142.78) per year/family, or 54 percent of family expenditure on cooking fuel, as a week cooking with a Protos uses only two liters of plant oil compared to four liters of kerosene with a traditional stove. Considering these advantages, it could be an answer to several problems for the world’s largest plant oil producer, Indonesia.

“The best [plant oil] is oil that is the most sustainable and costs the least. We’re focusing on jatropha, but I would say in addition there is used cooking oil. People in food stalls or at home rather than continuing to fry with old oil, which is unhealthy, could use it as fuel for cooking and as they can reuse the frying oil they might change the oil more often. Both types of oil are viable alternatives, but basically anything that flows and is not solid in the morning is fine,” explained Samuel N. Shiroff, the business development director of Indonesia, about the stove’s main energy source.

The technology has been tested and developed since 2003. A production partner has been engaged since May 2010. Partnerships with governments, enterprises and development organizations have been formed. The next challenge is connecting with the end users. In order to achieve this producer company BSH (Bosch and Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH) has encouraged Indonesian students at ITB School of Business and Management, University of Indonesia, PPM-Management, and Prasetiya Mulya Business School to participate in a Protos business plan competition.

The stove will not be freely available on the market, so these students are challenged with being the distributors.

“We realize how important it is to understand marketing in a country and who knows this better than the upcoming entrepreneurs? It has a nonprofit orientation, we want to cover our costs but we would also like to generate a profit for people in the supply chain. We thought it would be a perfect way to generate interest in the business school and also among graduate and undergraduate students,” Shiroff outlined the competition’s goal on the final night, held at the Sultan Hotel in Jakarta on July 19.

The winners from PPM-Management Postgraduate, Luky Kusumah, Iskandar Muda, and Aprihatiningrum Hidayati won a paid trip to Munich Germany in the second week of October as a global business networking opportunity, and a prize of $5,000.

In addition, these entrepreneurs will be given the opportunity to run the strategy themselves. “We’re not sure when we’re going to implement the business plan. There have been discussions and speculation that this will take place at the end of the year or perhaps in early 2012. Of course, all will be done with BSH coordination and evaluation. However, at the moment no further details are available about when and how the business will be started,” explained Luky Kusumah.