[Gasification] Biomass Gasification at the "Chin-dia" price

[Peter Singfield]

OK - -what is happening on global level with partial combustion Gasifiers??

Well -- a lot -- but just not around this area of this planet!!

BIOconversion Blog 

http://bioconversion.blogspot.com/

The second of four interlinked BIOenergy Blogs, this one covers
international issues, process R&D, facility deployments, and new
developments. The other three related blogs are the BIOstock Blog,
BIOoutput Blog, and the BIOwaste Blog.

But specifically this Url:

http://bioconversion.blogspot.com/search/label/gasification

You need to go and get that so all the embedded links will work -- and
there are plenty -- as well as some fine graphics!!

Here is but one embedded link of interest:

http://biopact.com/2007/04/biomass-gasification-to-power-rural.html

The one this review is based on!

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April 23, 2007

Biomass Gasification at the "Chin-dia" price 

Thomas Friedman talks about the need for new alternative energy systems to
be affordable at the "China price" or, more broadly the "Chin-dia price" -
cheap enough for China or India to deploy because with the demand for
renewable energy so high in those countries, they may indeed be the first
to develop and deploy them. He contends that the ultimate solution(s) will
have to compete economically with the "Chin-dia price". Certainly, without
near global deployment of a variety of technologies suited to each culture
and eco-system, alternative energy will never effectively shift the energy
paradigm to carbon-neutral renewable feedstock.

We typically think of "biomass gasification" as an elegant but expensive
alternative to co-firing or fossil fuel combustion. A recent Biopact
article titled Biomass gasification to power rural India out of energy
povertydispells that myth:

Even though there is no magic solution to the age-old development problem
of bringing electricity to the rural poor, some elements and factors have
been identified as key: decentralisation, reliance on locally available
energy resources (water, wind, the sun or biomass) and, crucially, the need
for low-cost systems.

Experts from India think these principles and requirements converge in a
technology known as biomass gasification, in an electrification concept
that has become commercially feasible and reliable (in-depth discussion of
the technology, here, or see the image showing a downdraft biomass
gasifier, click to enlarge). The energy system may be applicable to rural
areas in the developing world at large because it is the least costly of
the common alternatives. Depending on local circumstances, it is estimated
to be between 15 and 20 times less costly than photovoltaics.

Several community-operated experiments with decentralised biomass
gasification and electrification are now underway in India, and it looks
like the technology can literally turn marginalised communities into
thriving and prosperous societies (see the case-study). Drawing on this
success, an ambitious initiative by science institutes and the private
sector has been launched aimed at mass-producing efficient small to
medium-scale gasifiers

It turns out that Ludditism - the tendency of technology detractors to hold
up deployment for any number of reasons - is the most expensive part of any
alternative energy technology. If Americans persist in delaying
implementation of even the most tested and reasonable solutions to our
environmental/energy problems, we will cede leadership in the investment
and development of emerging technologies.