This new website has been designed with the intention of providing up to date information in a new layout. We hope this new architecture will enable each and everyone to find more rapidly answers to their questions.
On a technical level, the original design, the Mark 1 has been built in many countries by a wide range of organizations including WHO, MSF, the British Council, UNICEF, the Salvation Army, and many individual mission and charity workers.
The design has generally worked well, but inevitably regular use in the field has identified weaknesses that were not evident in the original design tests. There have also been calls for slight design changes to meet particular requirements, for instance to use gaseous fuel in the Central Asia region, or to support longer chimneys to meet certain regulations in some countries...
Thus the designs have been subject to regular improvements and modifications. The present range of recommended models, the Mark 7, the Mark 8a and the Mark 9, are a means of identifying the drawings which resulted from these continuous modifications, and to avoid confusion no other models are shown on this website. It cannot be over-emphasized that these models are improvements on previous models.
There are now estimated to be over 1'000 De Montfort incinerators in Africa, Central Asia, East Europe, South Asia and South-East Asia. Some have been reported inoperative, mainly due to poor manufacture or operating procedures and maintenance. We have therefore added on top of a specific section on construction, some basic advice on Operation and Maintenance (O & M).
The "De Montfort" incinerators were designed by Professor D.J. Picken, over a period of about 8 years from 1996.
The objective was to meet a need identified by Intermediate Technology for cheap but effective incinerators which could be built in almost any developing country, but would meet the criteria of a temperature of above 800oC with a residence time of over 1 second.
The initial research was sponsored by the Department for International Development of the British Government and the work carried out at De Montfort University where Professor Picken was employed before he retired.
My colleagues and myself have visited and instructed builders and MoH Officials in 15 countries to date. These three "new" models reflect the experience gathered on the field and we hope that the content of this website will help end users find their way in choosing and setting up the most appropriate solution for their specific situation.
D.J. Picken, March 2004