ZERO is just back from a trip to Tanzania to look at Jatropha production and bio gas. The trip was conducted together with Norwegian Church Aid, Energy for Sustainable Development and representatives from the Jatropha Integrated Energy Project in Kenya. The following is a description of some of the projects visited.
Longido cheese factory
Longido is a small village in the heart of the land of the Masai people in Tanzania. A Dutch/Masai partnership has led to the establishment of a small cheese factory in Longido to improve the value of milk produced by Masai in the region.
Deutz engine fitted with a two tank system and a heat exchanger in order to be able to run on Jatropha oil. Photo: ZERO
The factory's power supply consist of two 68 kW Deutz generators that have been modified to run on jatropha oil. So far the engines have only been doing test runs on plant oil but were intended to run on pure Jatropha oil when available. The generators where delivered, converted and installed by the Dutch company Brodtech .
The same type of equipment has been installed in a location in Mali where it has been running successfully on Jatropha oil for a while. The same system is being used and installed in other cheese factories in the country, where engines also have been modified to run on Jatropha oil.
Dilligent
Pressing facilities where Diligent prepare Jatropha oil for aircraft manufacturer Boeing. Photo: ZERO
When in Arusha we got to visit the pressing facilities of Diligent Tanzania ltd. Diligent have been working with production and promotion of Jatropha oil for several years. They received a grant from the Dutch government in 2004 to develop their work with the plant. Together with Bosch-Siemens-Home appliances (BSH) the company has developed a pressurized cooking stove that can use pure Jatropha oil.
Pressurized Bosch-Siemens stove for Jatropha oil. Photo: ZERO
The pressing plant was under full operation during our visit (sorry, no pictures from inside the plant) due to a large order placed by the aircraft producer Boeing. Boeing wants to test Jatropha biodiesel in its airplanes.
Kakute Ltd
Kakute Ltd is an NGO working for the promotion of Jatropha and related technology transfer. They also sell equipment.
Biogas stove (to the left) and prototype of stove for Jatropha oil. Photo: ZERO
Kakute trains farmers in Jatropha in planting, oil pressing and soap production. The four representatives from the Jatropha Integrated Energy Project in Kenya attended one of Kakute's one day training programs and found it most inspiring and useful.
Kakute Ltd sells locally made hand-expellers (see video), oil lamps and Jatropha soaps.
The company is developing a modified cooking stove for Jatropha in cooperation with University of Dar es Salaam.
Hand operated oil-expeller for Jatropha. Photo: ZERO
They also experiment with biogas production from seedcakes and cow dung. For this purpose Kakute has constructed a simple biogas reactor based on plastic sheets shaped into a sausage-like design and then dug in to the ground. These types of biogas reactors have proven to have limitations, but they are cheap and fairly easy to construct. Later on the trip we visited a farm where this type of reactor for cow dung has been built.
The farmers had initially abandoned the project,
the reasons being that it was to much work to feed the reactor;
Locally made oil lamp for Jatropha oil. Photo: ZERO
it needed too much water and eventually there were holes in the plastic sheets.
During the period where the reactor was actually working, the farmers where not satisfied with the amount of gas it yielded, it was not enough to cover the daily need. However, there have been reports that lager fixed dome type of reactors have proven more successfull.
Biogas reactor for Jatropha seedcake and cow dung at Kakute. This one worked fine. Photo: ZERO
Mwanga Group Leguruki, Meru
16 HP engine running on Jatropha. Photo: ZERO
Perhaps the most interesting part of the trip was a visit to Mwanga Group where ZERO got to have a closer look at a multi function platform (MFP) running on self-pressed Jatropha oil. A MFP is an engine that can run different types of machinery. The MFP at Leguruki was alternately running a generator of 10 kW, a seed press, a pocher mill and a regular maize mill. The MFP owned by Mwanga Group was delivered by TaTEDOand cost around 15 million Tsh (15 000 USD).
TaTEDO multi function platform. Photo: ZERO
The engine was a 16 HP two cylinder low speed type. It has been fitted with an extra tank for Jatropha oil. The system was not constructed to ensure preheating of the oil, as would most system in Europe. According to the engine operator, Good Lucky Kaaya, there was no need for preheating; only during the cold season it would be started on diesel and switched to Jatropha oil when the engine was hot.
So far there have been no problems running the engine on Jatropha. According to Kaaya the engine was running far better on Jatropha oil than on diesel. It was less smelly and fuel consumption was lower when using Jatropha (watch the video to see the engine in action).
Switch system for Jatropha and diesel. Photo: ZERO
All the Jatropha oil used on Mwanga Group's engine was locally produced and pressed with the seed press in the MFP.
