Our project partner Dreyer Foundation works primarily in the region of Dano,Burkina Faso, where the fundation is present with numerouse projects since many years. An important project is the promotion of agriculture in the region. A focal point is the cultivaltion of rice. The holistic approach includes all parts of the value chain. The rice mill of the foundation is equipped with a solar field comprising of 20 Scheffler Reflectors of 16m² each, providing 79kW of thermal energy in the processing vessels under prevailing solar conditions. The reflectors produce steam for parboiling.
In August 2018 Simply Solar installed and commisioned a 60kWp PV-Power-Plant with battery to cover a great part of the electric energy demand of the rice mill and the foundation's campus with solar ernergy.
In October 2018 Simply Solar added four custom-made biomass boilers of 25kW each. Rice husk is the main waste product of the mill. It can not be composted easily, for this reason it is given back to the field in form of ash.
The boilers are automatically fed with rice-husk from small silos at each boiler. The ash ist removed from the burners with automated feed screws. The biomass boilers replace two locally made rice husk gasifier with high emissions and a tendency to explode. The new technology burns smoke free and generates low pressure steam for parboiling. The modular system allows to have steam from below 25 kW to over 100kW.
For this project Simply Solar needed to adapt it's boiler technology to rice husks. Loose material requires a automaic feed mechanism, additionally ashes from rice husks melt into slag and present difficulties for ash removel.
