It's a cooker, a fridge and an electricity generator in one, and it could have a huge impact on the lives of people in the world's poorest communities.

The £2m Score (Stove for Cooking, Refrigeration and Electricity) project aims to bring affordable electricity to rural communities in Africa and Asia, where access to power is extremely limited.

Across the world, around 2bn people use open fires as their primary cooking method. These fires have been found to be highly inefficient, with 93% of the energy generated lost. And when used in enclosed spaces, smoke from the fires can cause health problems.

The Score project aims to find a better solution, by pooling the expertise of scientists from across the world. They were challenged to develop a wood-powered generator capable of both cooking and cooling food.

The solution they have proposed is revolutionary: a stove that turns heat into sound waves, and then into electricity, known as thermo-acoustic technology.

It sounds outrageously complex, but in fact it's ingenious, according to one of the scientists leading the project, Professor Mark Johnson of Nottingham University's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

"Using thermo-acoustic technology is a more efficient way of using wood as a fuel than using an open fire to cook," he says. "It also produces fewer pollutants."

It sounds great in theory, but how will it work in practice?

Inside the Score stove, wood or biomass is burned to produce heat, which goes into a specially shaped pipe. The gas moves from the hot part of the pipe, where it expands, to the cold part, where it contracts, and generates sound.

"The pipe resonates rather like an organ pipe," said project director Paul Riley, in the journal Nature. "This produces acoustic pressure waves, which can be harnessed to produce electricity."

The sound waves are also used to drive a second engine that removes heat from a nearby refrigeration unit. The heat from the burning wood can also be used for cooking in a conventional cooker stove.

One of the main attractions of Score stoves is that they don't need an external electricity supply. Another is that many homes are already using wood for cooking.

But what's the downside? The system requires a constant supply of fuel; it will generate electricity and cool the fridge only while it is operating as a stove.

Nevertheless, Score aims to be producing these stoves within five years, but that could be difficult, and science is only a small part of the challenge.

Success will also depend on ensuring that local communities have enough expertise to build and maintain the devices themselves.

Professor Maksud Helali, head of the department of Mechanical Engineering at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, is one of many who have offered their support.

He says: "Bangladesh's energy infrastructure is relatively small and inefficient. An efficient, expanding energy system is essential for poverty alleviation.

It will improve the quality of people's lives."