The IED Group, through its subsidiary IED-Invest, has been developing and operating biomass power plants in Cambodia since 2011. In collaboration with local manufacturers, IED has developed simple and robust small-power gasification systems (approximately 200 kW per unit).

From this experience, IED is a partner in the Agrogazelec project carried out by the association Urja  Nishati,  Nitidae and CIRAD. This project is born from the identification of many biomass potentials at the levels of agribusinesses in Africa, whose amount of waste to be reclaimed would supply small and medium power plants (200 kW to 2 MW). In particular, cashew processing units are confronted with the hulls waste management.

Funded by the French Global Environment Fund (FFEM), this project aims to develop a viable industrial solution and suitable assemblies for the development of such units.

In the prospect to transferring operational gas-based manufacturing and exploitation know-how to Cambodia, IED conducted a series of tests on a test platform set up at one of these plants in Cambodia between August and December 2020. The objective was to validate the adaptions to be brought (equipment and operating methods) to allow to operate at the cashew hull.

In addition, the implementation of an instrumentation plan has led to a better understanding of gasification processes, and to identify avenues for improvement.  As a result of these tests, the modifications to the gasogen led to stable operation, improved efficiency and better quality gas production.

The last phase of the trial focused on improving gas treatment to limit the amount of effluent to be treated. Considering the encouraging results at the pilot scale, work is currently underway to build equipment to treat all the gas, which will be tested in the coming months.

At the end of these tests, the configuration of the gasification systems to be deployed in Africa will be validated in order to allow the start of construction of the first pilot units.