Centre for Energy, Environment and Sustainable DevelopmentCEESD Ghana
Centre for Energy, Environment and Sustainable DevelopmentCEESD and GlobalResolve begin
experiments on gel ethanol utilization
October 20 - CEESD and GlobalResolve – an NGO within
Arizona State University – have begun research into gel ethanol
production and dissemination in Ghana.
The main objective is to develop strategies for large scale
production and utilization of gel ethanol as a cooking fuel and as a
substitute to woodfuels and LPG in households and institutions in
Ghana.
Gel ethanol is obtained by mixing ethanol with a thickening agent
and is seen as a potential clean substitute for woodfuels and LPG in
Ghana. It burns with a clean blue flame, and its promotion as a
household cooking fuel on a national scale is expected among other
benefits to reduce: indoor
air pollution which kills an estimated 1.5 million people globally
(mostly women),
reliance on traditional biomass, greenhouse gas emissions, and the
rate of degradation of natural vegetation.
The project involves production of ethanol and subsequent gelling
into gel fuel, development of cheap and sustainable gelling agents
locally, design and fabrication of efficient and affordable gel
ethanol stoves, market analysis, and development of enterprise-based
promotion of gel ethanol.
A distillation plant capable of producing 100 litres of ethanol (95
%) daily has already been designed and installed by Global Resolve
and CEESD at Domeabra, a rural community in the Asanti Akim district
of Ghana. With funding from Global Resolve, ethanol will be produced
and gelled and subsequently tested as cooking fuels in two schools –
Mount Olivet International School at Kwadaso in Kumasi and Domeabra
Senior High School in Domeabra, and a selected number of households.
Feedbacks from the two schools and the selected households will
provide information on the relative costs of using gel fuel against
other household fuel such as charcoal, firewood, and LPG, in
addition to other issues such as reliability and comfortability of
using gel ethanol stoves.
This project is jointly implemented by GlobalResolve and CEESD with
support from Nana Frimpong Afoakwa – Chief of Domeabra, and Heads of
selected schools. It also involves students from Kumasi Polytechnic
and Arizona State University who have been tasked with the
development of local gelling agents and development of efficient gel
fuel stoves with supervision from staff of the partner institutions
(Engineers at CEESD and Global Resolve).