Investigation of Agricultural Residues Gasification for Electricity Production in Sudan as an Example for Biomass Energy Utilization under Arid Climate Conditions in Developing Countries

The provision of sustainable electricity is the determining factor in securing the desired developmental change for developing countries in the second millennia. Energy and electricity planning including the proper utilization of renewable energy is thus a concern for researchers and practitioners across various disciplines. Typically problematic planning aspects include assessing availability in terms of quantity, place and time, selection of end energy type and the transforming system. Other aspects that are not fully studied include the comprehensive understanding of the technical properties that governs the effective utilization of each technology, and the comparative merits of the renewable energy to other conventional resources, which determines inter alia its application area and share in the energy mix.
This study was undertaken as part of the continuous efforts to clarify the comparative merits for thermal utilization of biomass, considering agricultural residues gasification for electricity generation as a specific target. In this study a multi-dimensional approach was used to carefully analyse the contextual energy (electricity) situation at both national and regional levels. Technical investigation was carried to submit realistic application possibilities. Furthermore, a gasification based power plant (BGPP) was presented as a possible engineering solution to increase the energy supply at the study area, its economics was tested.