ESD and its Ethiopian counterparts began work on designing an improved biomass injera stove in 1990. Numerous attempts were thwarted by the unique requirements of injera baking. Injera requires a quick, fast heat, evenly distributed over a 60 cm round traditional ceramic plate. Traditional baking is carried out on a three stone fire, with fuel fed in from all sides. While this produces the hot, fast flames required for good injera, it is highly energy inefficient, unsafe and unhealthy.
Smoke is produced in large quantities.
Heat from baking burns many cooks. The whole activity is one of the most unpleasant, and dangerous, household tasks. ESD worked with John Parry Workshops of the UK to develop a modular, prefabricated stove from cement and local construction materials that could be produced relatively easily, in large quantities, by a range of different scale producers, at inexpensive prices. Household trials not only showed similar results, but also demonstrated that cooks found the stove appealing on a number of counts. Reducing the smoke was, and is, of major importance.