December 9th, 2009

Currently, the “Innovations in biofuels” program includes projects using biogas, PPO, biodiesel, and ethanol for community energy production. As a result of positive experiences in Cambodia, FACT seriously considers including biomass gasification in its range of applicable technologies.

FACT and its partners plan to field test the best available system in the market and demonstrate its use for community electrification.  Gasification has long been a technology with many problems. Gasification systems were considered unreliable due to a range of occurring problems, from insufficient gas quality to lack of technical expertise and fuel quality management. With new materials and simpler handling, much of the operational issues now seem to be manageable.

There remain some concerns with respect to the handling of effluents (ash, char, tar, scrubber water), which FACT and its partners will continue to work on. Please contact Bart Frederiks for more information.