PLUG INTO ENERGY

The Allison Skeete Column

Barbadian Researcher’s work ignites Caribbean Diaspora Energy world

Barbadian Andrea Jordan of Newcastle University, a researcher in England, has given the ailing sugar industries in the Caribbean a ray of hope. She revealed that there’s been an "early commercial" development of a gasification process to convert bagasse, (residue from the sugar cane), into a gas which is then used in power-generating plants to produce electricity.

Unlike traditional combustion, which has been used by sugar factories for many years to burn bagasse to produce electricity and heat, gasification is a very efficient process which can increase the amount of electricity produced from organic materials by more than 3.5 times.

"This method can contribute up to 30% of the electricity demand in countries such as Barbados, Guyana, Dominica, St Kitts and Grenada, where their agriculture waste material can be used," she told a conference of Caribbean power companies which had met in Barbados.

Jordan said that trials have already been conducted on Barbados’ sugar cane at Newcastle University and the results were "through the roof." Within recent weeks, a new variety of high fiber cane from Barbados was shipped to England and a new round of trials is expected to start later this month. The gasification unit developed by Newcastle University is already in operation in Britain. She said this was the "early commercial" stage, but there was still some way to go. "There are specific improvements which an entire team of Doctors and PhD students are working on to increase the efficiency of the unit," she said.

The result could be significant foreign currency savings for the Caribbean, which now imports fuel to power generators at high costs. Jordan said that not only was bagasse from Barbados, St Kitts and Guyana a useful "new fuel" but also coconut shells in Dominica, nutmeg husks in Grenada and sawdust and rice husks in Guyana.

"In Guyana where thousands of metric tons of rice husks, sawdust and bagasse are produced annually, that country could use these to produce more than 11,000GWh of power annually. This is more than its current annual electricity demand. We need to recognize that these ‘wastes’ are the fuels of the future which can become part of our energy mix and can reduce our dependence on oil."

Ms. Jordan’s research is funded by the Government of Barbados and the Barbados Light and Power Company Limited.

This column provides insight to Energy Issues and how they affect the Caribbean, Central & South American Diasporas. It’s not an endorsement of any Energy Policies or Political Edict — Columnist Disclaimer