Nampula to produce energy from cashew shells as it did in the 60s and 70s

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Nampula to produce energy from cashew shells as it did in the 60s and 70s

10:46 CAT | 08 May 2017

In the medium term, Nampula province can expect to produce enough electricity using cashew nut shells to meet its current deficit.

The technology for generating this energy, mainly for the cashew sector, was presented at a local government meeting organised to assess the state of electrification and prospects for meeting the deficit through business start-ups.

Presenting the technology, Electrotécnica Lda manager Pedro Semedo said that generating biomass electric power required only a boiler to produce steam to power a generator. The technology was in fact used by the cashew industry in Nampula in the 1960s and 1970s, he said.

According to Semedo, the equipment needed to produce energy from cashew nut shells already exists on the Island of Mozambique and Angoche.

“Electrotécnica is backing cashew nut shells because it is a raw material that the country has in abundance. Nampula province, the country’s largest producer of cashew nuts, disposes of considerable quantities of the material,” Semedo explained.

Semedo pointed out the need to work out the efficiency of the process, especially the relationship between the quantity of biomass and the electrical power obtained – studies which will soon be carried out in Italy.

Nampula currently has 10 cashew shelling plants with a total capacity of 40,000 tons of nuts per year, and produces about 24,000 tons of shell. Semedo says quantities like these are sufficient to guarantee biomass electricity generation.

Using cashew shells to generate electricity will alleviate pressure on the national grid, already facing increasing consumer demand.

Source: Rádio Moçambique