One-third of the world s population uses traditional biomass for cooking, lighting andrnspace heating. The use of these forms of energy is associated with environmental asrnwell as human health impacts. Approximately 2500 million people are exposed dailyrnto emissions from biomass-burning cooking sites. Respiratory disease, one of thernmajor causes of death in developing countries, is linked to these emissions. Like inrnother developing countries the energy sector of Ethiopia is dominated by biomassrnfuels. This condition does not seem to change appreciably in the foreseeable futurernand the problems aggravated by the growing demand of energy of the economicrnsector. Areke distillation is one of the economic activities that has become a majorrnsource of income for many households in various parts of Ethiopia. As Arekerndistillation entirely depends on fuelwood for its preparation and processing, its largernscale production for commercial purpose places huge pressure on the forestrnresources of the country. In an effort to address the problems supply side as well asrndemand side interventions have been made. Recently, recognizing the impacts ofrnAreke distillation on the forest resource and human health, the GTZ-SUN project hasrnintroduced an improved stove technology for Areke distillation. This study aims atrnassessing the potential benefits of these stoves with respect to improving the indoorrnair quality and reducing specific fuel consumption as well as time taken forrndistillation. The study was conducted in Arsi Negelle town, Oromiya regional state,rnwhere Areke distillation is the major source of livelihood for a large number ofrnhouseholds. The indoor concentrations of two major pollutants, CO and PM werernmonitored using HOBO CO loggers and UCB PM monitors, respectively. The testsrnwere conducted in a real kitchen as the stoves perform the actual Areke distillationrnbut under controlled setting in which every effort possible is made to minimizernsources of variability to ensure the stoves are used to their best effect. T-tests andrnregression models were employed to analyze the data. The room concentrations ofrnCO and PM resulting from the use of traditional stoves and improved stoves wererncompared in terms of the average concentrations during the whole distillation timernand the 8-hours time and the 15-minutes highest concentrations were also considered.rnThe improved stoves have shown statistically significant reduction in COrnconcentrations of 52.6% and 53.2% (n = 9) during the whole distillation time and thern8-hours time, respectively and the corresponding reduction in PM concentrationsrnwere 57% and 63.3%. The improved stoves have shown reduction in the 15- minutesrnhighest concentrations of CO and PM of 58.8% and 56.9% (n = 9), respectively. Thernanalysis of the data obtained in this study indicated that the correlation between COrnand PM were positive but weak with Pearson correlation of 0.32 (p=0.39; n=9) andrn0.35 (p=0.35; n=9) in the traditional stoves and improved stoves conditions,rnrespectively. Controlled Cooking Test procedures were also used to assess thernpotential of the improved stoves to reduce specific fuel consumption and the timerntaken for distillation. The improved stoves have shown percentage reduction inrnspecific fuel consumption of 4.4% and 22% reduction of time taken for distillation.rnThe reduction in the specific fuel consumption was not statistically significant.rnKey words: Areke, CO, Distilland, Efficiency, PM