It's not every day you see one product that's capable of having an impact on half the world, but that's exactly what the BioLite HomeStove hopes to do.
An estimated three billion people in Third World countries use wooden cooking stoves. These stoves produce a large amount of smoke — 1.5 million people die from smoke inhalation from these stoves each year, according to Worldchanging.org.
The folks at BioLite found a way to use wasted heat to create electricity through a thermoelectric chip. The energy from that chip powers a fan to reduce the smoke, which increases the efficiency of the fire and reduces the toxins in the air that are created with traditional wood burning fires.
The stove reduces smoke in the air by 94 percent, carbon dioxide by 91 percent and fuel consumption by half, according to BioLite. Families no longer have to look for as much fuel to power their stoves, saving hours of work a week.
If that wasn't enough, the extra electricity the chip collects isn't wasted. A USB port on the stove can charge electronics such as phones and other devices, crucial for the 1.3 billion people who lack electricity, according to BioLite data.