Setting up and testing a boiler fuelled by cashew nut shells in Burkina Faso
The BIOSTAR project develops and installs energy valorisation equipment for agro-industrial processing waste in SMEs in the shea, mango, groundnut and cashew nut industries. This 50 kW boiler was developed on the Bobo-Dioulasso bio-energy platform in collaboration with local equipment manufacturers. Its specificity is to be adapted to the use of cashew nut shells as fuel. By taking into account the specific nature of the fuel and incorporating control elements (frequency and pressure inverter, primary and secondary air control valves with lambda probe), the boiler is able to operate efficiently without producing harmful fumes, unlike the boilers usually found in transformers.
The test phase enables any malfunctions to be corrected and adjustments to be made with the equipment manufacturers. The collaboration between the latter and the BIOSTAR teams enables the development of a system that is both efficient and adapted to the field conditions and expertise of the equipment manufacturers.
The local equipment manufacturers with the BIOSTAR Nitidæ team
The boiler once installed
Once this work is complete, the boiler will be installed in ANASAM's cashew nut shelling unit, producing steam to meet the needs of the process at the nut embrittlement and kernel drying stages.
After moving to a new site in 2023, the bioenergy platform has had a busy year, working on three new sources of biomass in 2024: palm nut shells, coconut shells, and groundnut shells!
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