The biomass team is developing a low cost gasification system using agricultural waste for rural electrification in Ghana and other developing countries. The current prototype is a two chamber gasifier, in which the outer drum contains a fire to heat the inner closed chamber. The produced gas is fed to a petrol engine, which is adapted to also run on syngas and used to generate electricity.
Original Challenge: Access to electricity brings numerous benefits including improvements in education, income, health and gender equity. Yet, in Sub-Saharan Africa, 585 million people do not have access to electricity, and the rural electrification rate is only 14%, according to the International Energy Administration. While Ghana has a higher rate than its neighbors, only 25% of Ghanaian villages are electrified. There is an opportunity to provide rural communities with access to electricity using small-scale systems powered by biomass. Water hyacinth, dung, cassava leaves, urban refuse, agricultural residues and sewage are potentially viable feedstocks in Ghana. For this project, the challenge is to develop and prototype such a system and a business model to make it viable.