Bolangir: An LPG cylinder shortage in India following the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict is worsening by the day, severely affecting hotels and street vendors in Bolangir district.
With cylinders unavailable and being sold at higher prices on the black market, several hotels have shut down, while others have shifted to wood and coal stoves.
Amid the crisis, a hotel owner in Bolangir town has developed an alternative “jet stove,” drawing attention for his innovation. The stove runs on a mixture of used engine oil and diesel, which he claims is cheaper and more efficient than LPG.
Saroj Kumar Sahu, owner of Raghu Hotel located on the road from Tikrapada Vikram Chowk to the railway station, invented the stove himself. He said the LPG shortage had left him worried about shutting down his hotel, prompting him to explore alternatives.
After researching on YouTube, he designed the stove using an iron frame fitted with a custom-made burner, welded at a local garage. He installed a pipe system to channel the fuel mixture from a storage tank to the burner, along with an air-flow mechanism using an electric vacuum device.
The stove is ignited manually and, once the vacuum system is switched on, burns more intensely than a conventional gas burner. He has named it the “jet stove.”
Sahu said he has been running his hotel smoothly on the stove for the past three to four days. Preparing lunch and dinner requires about one litre of diesel and five litres of used engine oil daily, costing him around Rs 300–400, compared with nearly Rs 1,000 per day earlier on LPG.
He, however, noted that sourcing used oil from the market requires extra effort. Sahu plans to further improve the design and seek a patent, expressing hope that the low-cost stove could benefit households and small eateries.
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