For more details have a look at the official project website:
Simply Solar contributes the solution for solar hot water and solar steam (alternatively using Scheffler Reflectors and steam generation from Photovoltaic electricity) as well as the PVmedPort.
Rwenzori Royal Institute in Kasese, Uganda, is a school of higher eduction. It offers studies in eco-tourism and has a teaching kitchen. Deforestation is a big problem and very evident in the region. The institute wants to showcase modern and sustainable ways of cooking to it's students and the public.
Together with Solare Zukunft e.V., Solare Brücke e.V. and Jürgen Körner from SES, Simply Solar has added two Solar Cookers to the teaching kitchen of the Rwenzori Royal Institute: a 2.5m² Scheffler Reflector and Simply Solar's photovoltaic Solar cooker. The action was funded by Schmitz Stiftungen. Simply Solar's expert on site, Adrian Konrad, involved the teachers into the assembly and installation of both solar cookers.
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Outlook:
Rwenzori Royal Institute is planning to offer a new course on renewable energies. Practical experience for example with the construction of solar cookers will be an important part of the course.
For the teaching kitchen the next step is to install a 10m² Scheffler Reflector integrated into the building. Hopefully the pandemic situation will allow to involve the students this time!
Low pressure steam for Sanivation's fecal treatment plant at Sanctuary Farm in Naivasha, Kenya, is generated by 2 Scheffler Reflectors (10m² each) and one 15kW Biomass burner. These three steam generators are integrated into one closed-loop steam circuit which heats the treatment conveyor-screw. Each steam generator can be used as single source of steam or combined with the others. This makes it possible to use the solar set-up during all sunny days and to support with biomass in case of a weather change. When a necessity for night-time operation arrises, then the biomass burner allone can heat the treatment system, using the biomass fuel Sanivation produces. All steam is recycled, so that water consumpotion is minimized and water treatment is avoided. For make-up water rainwater collected from the roofs is used.
Simply Solar installed and commissioned the steam installation in 2018.
Sanivation has been treating between 1-10 tons/month of fecal sludge using this system. With the treated sludge about 300 tons of charcoal were produced in 2019.
2 Scheffler Reflectors of 10m² each generate low pressure steam for thermal treatment
installation of 15kW biomass based steam generator
inspection of treatment machinery by Sanivation staff
instructions for use and maintenance at the outlet hopper of the thermal treatment
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.
