[Gasification] ARECOP gasifier projects: what progress??

[Paul S. Anderson]

Dear Everyone,

I have include below the absolutely excellent summary that Erwan has provided
about the gasifier projects from the ARECOP workshop in China with 
applications
focused on cottage industry and small industry.

Major progress is happening!!!  As Erwan explains, delays do occur, but 
what is
happening is probably the largest effort for development of small gasifiers
ever attempted.  The technology (except in the case of Alexis Belonio, who is
already a T-LUD authority) is T-LUD gasification.  I note that the Sri Lanka
project is no longer about pineapple drying via a standard downdraft gasifier,
but is now for milk toffee production, which I assume will now be using T-LUD
designs.

Congratulations to all the participants, to Professors Mukunde and 
Dixit, and to
all associated with ARECOP (leadership, membership, and especially to the
sponsors).

We await the reports of further progress, maybe before or at the ETHOS meeting
on January 27-28, 2007 in Seattle.

Paul
-- 
Paul S. Anderson, Ph.D., Geography professor - Emeritus
Telephone:  USA-309-452-7072 (residence and office)
Internet site:  www.ilstu.edu/~psanders
For my gasifier stoves info, go to:
http://bioenergylists.org/contributors#Paul_Anderson


Quoting ARECOP Secretariat <secretariat at arecop.org>:

> Dear Prof. Anderson,
>
> Altogether, ARECOP has received  (from Indonesia (2), Nepal (1),
> India(1), Sri Lanka (1), Philippines (1), Lao (1). These proposals are
> all still in the process of being reviewed by our really great resource
> persons Prof Mukunda and Dr. Dixit, who are committed thoroughly to the
> process to guide us all (being very patient and always ready to provide
> insight and knowledge and attend to the details of data and information).
>
> Although to me, it seems that most of the participants proposing the
> projects have had difficulties in terms of design calculations, they
> have given a serious efforts at realizing those proposals. The process
> of proposal preparation has taken longer than expected and further the
> review and subsequent alterations to the proposal has also taken time.
> I'm glad to say that, although we are not yet able to see results in
> terms of working gasifier unit (except in Alexis' case), we have gone in
> the right direction and are experiencing progress. As expected the short
> training in Kunming has only facilitated the participants to take the
> initial steps toward project realization - the post training learning
> process continues under the guidance of the Prof. Mukunda and Dr. Dixit.
>
> I would now provide a brief overview of each project:
>
> 1. Rajan Thapa, Nepal is progressing with his project on lapsi candy
> processing gasifier stove. The project will be a collaboration of Center
> for Rural Technology and Research Center for Applied Science and
> Technology. The main problem faced the project have been uncertainties
> with regards to the determination of  in the rate of evaporation during
> lapsi boiling, which will consequently affect power level. I think this
> problem has now been solved. The system which has been proposed is a
> close coupled gasifier with an electrical blower (31 KWh, 40%
> efficiency, 6.7 kg/hr burning rate).  The gasifier will be fueled by a
> mixed of lapsi seeds, firewood and agri wastes. The project has proposed
> the installation of 3 units of the gasifiers.
>
> In addition the project has also proposed workshop to popularize
> gasification and to share about the result of the project.
>
> For this project, ARECOP has made a couple of queries with regards to
> hardware costs, monitoring details, and the possibility to increase the
> number of gasifiers to be installed.
>
> 2. Kumar Swami of TIDE India, has proposed to us a gasifier for
> restaurant cooking. He is lucky, that he is in Bangalore and has
> intensive consultation with Prof Mukunda and Dr. Dixit. The proposal
> made a detailed study on the cooking energy requirements in the restaurant.
>
> The project has proposed that the stove be designed by CGPL-IISC. Based
> on the assessment results, there will two different capacities gasifiers
> - a 2 kg/ hr stove and 1kg /hr stove 2. These systems will be wood fueled.
>
> The project has proposed besides pilot testing of the stoves, a
> technical training to be conducted by CGPL to TIDE, which will be to
> consolidate further the technical capacity of TIDE. ARECOP has suggested
> the installation of more hardware in the project.
>
> 3. Hounpheng and Soukhan's (of Technology Research Institute, Lao)
> project has earlier proposed a mixed fuel (rice husk, saw dust, wood)
> gasifier for the salt processing industry. There appears to be quite a
> number of unresolved issues at the moment with regards the project - in
> the later proposal, they have suggested a change of fuel to be used
> (rice husk) in the system, which will definitely change major aspects of
> the design, further there are also conflicting fuel usage data. We hope
> this could be clarified soon.
>
> 4. Alexis - He has so quickly came up with two working design of quasi -
> steam injected - gasifiers - one of smaller (household) and the other of
> larger (institutional) capacities.  A technical issue which has arisen,
> is, on improving the efficiency of the stoves. To assist on the matter,
> Prof Mukunda and Dr, Dixit planned to build Alexis models.
>
> Other activities suggested in the proposed project, include, training on
> stove fabrication, dissemination of stoves to get feedback from users,
> publication of technical manual and promotional activities. ARECOP has
> suggested a more systematic promotion of the stoves, a training that is
> focused on manufacturer and limited technical follow up to the trained
> manufacturers.
>
> 5.   Bulathgama of Sri Lanka. We had just received his proposal last
> week, due to some problem with e-mail. Bulath has proposed gasifier for
> the milk toffee industry. At this stage the proposal is still under review.
>
> 6. Dang of Maxpell, Indonesia, proposed a gasifier for coconut oil
> production.
>
> 7. Hermanto of Dian Desa, Indonesia, has proposed a gasifier for palm
> sugar processing. The process is to obtain 4 kg of palm sugar from 20 L
> of sap. There are several data that still need to be clarified on the
> energy requirement aspect.
>
> We have not received any proposal from Woranuch Jangsawang from Thailand.
>
> Best regards,
> Erwan
>
>
>



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