Sustainable development through electricity generation for isolated communities in Amazon region using small-scaled biomass gasification systems – GASEIFAMAZ project

Resumen

The project “Comparison among Existing Technologies of Biomass Gasification in Brazil and abroad and Formation of Human Resources in the Amazon Region - GASEIFAMAZ”, accord FINEP/CT-ENERG, is a partnership between CENBIO - The Brazilian Reference Center on Biomass, BUN - Biomass Users Network, UFAMA - Amazon University and IPT/USP - Technological Research Institute of São Paulo University. The main objective of the project is to test a small-scale fixed-bed gasification system (20 kWe) imported from the Indian Institute of Science, using biomass residues, offering an alternative to replace fossil fuel and providing sustainable electric energy for isolated communities. The operational and maintenance system tested at IPT/USP was adjusted to the local implantation conditions and later installed in Aquidabam Village, an isolated community at the Amazon region. Aquidabam village is located at the municipality of Manacaparu, at Amazon state. There are 700 people living at this community. They have Cupuaçu production, an Amazon fruit considered the community’s leading agricultural resource. The implantation of the Gasification system will allow the formation of a local agro industry to sell frozen cupuaçu pulp (with a high added value), thus improving the community income and consequently, their quality of living. This paper will show the results on gasification system and the GASEIFAMAZ project.