Hello Pannirselvam, We are associated as manufacturing licencees with the CGPL, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and have installed a 20 kWe Biomass gasification based power plant at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2002. I shall get back to you on its performance shortly. We are currently involved in a 500 kWe UNDP funded rural electrification project for a cluster of 5 villages.
The design of our gasifier is such that it is capable of handling any biomass of bulk density > 200 kg/M3. In our existing installations, we have used coconut shell/Casuarina/ Eucalyptus/Prosopsis/saw dust briquettes. The cashew nut shell needs to be briquettted to improve its bulk density. You can significantly improve the economics by sale of the by-products. With coconut shell, you will produce about 8-10% of high grade charcoal (or Activated Carbon to be more exact) having an Iodine Value of 500 to 600 mg/gm. This needs to be crushed and classified before sale. Unlike in biodiesel, Iodine value here is an indication of the surface activity or Adsorbtivity of the Carbon and the higher this value, the greater its market price. Without further activation, this carbon can be used for decolourisation and deodourisation of drinking water supplies, edible oil refining, liquid process streams in chemicals and dyes industries. It can also be activated either thermally or by steam to Iodine value >1000 mg/gm for treating liquid and gas process streams in drugs, electronics and hazardous industries and in gas masks. This is sold in bulk in India at US $ 500 to 1,000/MT depending on Iodine value. With cashew nut shell, you first extract CNSL or Cashew Nut Shell Liquid, which is used as a wood preservative directly or in formulation as varnish. It imparts a warm sheen to the wood surface and provides protection against a number of wood borers and termites. The yield is 15-20% of the shell weight. I believe the Japanese use it for manufacturing value added downstream resins for speciality uses. CNSL is sold in bulk in India at about US $ 400/MT. The deoiled shell is then briquettted and gasified. The plants at village level should nominally be viable at > 20 kWe output, if you compare it with grid delivered and unsubsidised power. However, in most cases this prognosis holds little meaning, as you are providing villagers something they never possessed and the cascading impact on the village economy and quality of life of the people now made powerful, in more ways than one, cannot be easily and directly reckoned. You may visit the CGPL site at http://cgpl.iisc.ernet.in/ Glycerine, being liquid, does not easily lend itself to atmospheric gasification. I need to research this further. regards, balaji ----- Original Message ----- From: "pan ruti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <biofuel@yahoogroups.com> Cc: "gpecufrn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "karunakaran" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "mohan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "padmanabhan paramasevam" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2004 10:31 PM Subject: [biofuel] Gasification of biomass and glycerol > Hello Balaji > > Here in northeast part of the Brasil, we are studying the possibility of installing a small gasification units in rural area based on coconut and cashew nut shell.What about the viability of making the small scale units.Please help us inthis regards about resources in internet..Can glycerol can be used in the process. > > Your faithfully > Pannirselvam <snip> ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70 http://us.click.yahoo.com/Z1wmxD/DREIAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
