Biomass based gasifier for providing electricity and thermal energy to off-grid locations in Cuba. Conceptual design

Some 400,000 people in rural Cuba currently do not have reliable electric supply. Moreover, they use fuelwood in traditional inefficient and smoky cookstoves. This paper proposes a technological concept comprising a biomass gasifier to supply fuel to an engine generator to provide electricity to the village. Waste heat would be recovered from the engine and put to use. Thus the gas engine would operate in combined heat and power mode. Moreover, producer gas from the gasifier would be used to meet household cooking as well as other thermal needs of the village. The proposed gasifier CHP is sized to meet the power and thermal energy demand of a typical village of 60 households. The economics of power generation using the gasifier based system show the system to provide relatively low cost electricity. Biomass resources in rural Cuba is shown to be more than sufficient to meet the demand of the off-grid rural population. Technology complexity and technology delivery options are presented. Equipment standardization is also suggested as a way of improving reliability and reducing costs. The paper might be of interest to others rural regions around the world in which biomass is available and could be utilized as an energy carrier for providing power and heating needs to off-grid households and to small social/productive centers in villages.

► An energy using pattern per people and households based on off-grid regions was found.
► The energy pattern led to defining energy consumption indexes.
► Such pattern led to authors to designing a standardized biomass based CHP package.