December 9th, 2009

End November, a FACT team consisting of Winfried Rijssenbeek and Bart Frederiks made a brief but very interesting visit to a number of biomass gasifiers in Cambodia. The gasifiers have been installed in recent years by the Cambodian company SME Renewable Energy Ltd, a joint venture of SME Cambodia and E+CO. So far, the company has installed more than 30 gasifiers of Indian make (Ankur) at rice mills, ice factories, garment factories and rural electrification enterprises.  

Some general observations:

• Gasifiers operating on rice husk seem to run quite smoothly, with little operational problems. Wood gasifiers appear more difficult to operate; specifically, meeting the fuel specifications is often a challenge.
• In an industrial setting, gasification can be a financially attractive means of energy generation. However, for small-scale units for rural electrification, over-all electricity production costs remain considerable.
• More work is required in the area of useful application or safe disposal of solid and liquid effluents (ash, char, tar, scrubber water) – this is being worked on but requires additional effort.