Gasification and Biodigestion to Improve Small & Medium Scale Colombian Coffee Farms

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This project aims to implement a suite of three technologies: gasification-fuelled cookstoves, tubular plug-flow biodigesters and gasification-fuelled coffee dryers. Using a participative process, six of these demonstration suites will be implemented in five departments of Colombia: Santander (2), Meta, Antioquia, Cauca and Caldas.

Colombia's coffee-growing region is the world's third most productive, providing a livelihood for over 560,000 families. By taking advantage of the organic waste generated by coffee cultivation and common practices of diversified production, biomass-fuelled renewable energy (RE) technologies offer rural families the chance to improve their quality of life and economic productivity while implementing sustainable and integrated practices. This project aims to implement a suite of three technologies: gasification-fuelled cookstoves, tubular plug-flow biodigesters and gasification-fuelled coffee dryers. Using a participative process, six of these demonstration suites will be implemented in five departments of Colombia: Santander (2), Meta, Antioquia, Cauca and Caldas. The specific objectives of the project are:  

  • To conduct a detailed baseline study on partner organisations, monitoring parameters, performance assessment and potential users
  • To develop local management models for the proposed technologies
  • To construct and implement the cookstoves, biodigestion systems and coffee dryers, and to undertake hands-on training for operators
  • To offer experience exchanges between the different project sites, to monitor and evaluate project experiences and to analyse socio-economic and environmental impacts
  The project will be led by the UTA Foundation, the founder of the RedBioCOL network and will further integrate different member organisations of the practitioner network: La Cosmopolitana Agroecological Foundation, Northern Cauca Association of Indigenous Communities- ACIN, TerraZoNet, EL COMUN, ASPROINCA and Green Empowerment. The project duration is fifteen months, starting in May 2016.

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