C. F. Nielsen - Groundnut Shell Biomass Briquettes

GreenTech Gambia, profile
GreenTech, is a private business response to the actual poverty situation, the up-winding energy crises and the environmental challenges in Gambia. The company will first of all supply affordable high quality fuel briquettes for cooking and heating to a high diversity of industries and households, whilst supporting international and national strategies and targets for sustainable environmental and social development. GreenTech focuses on pro-poor and environmentally friendly products, production and marketing strategies with high potential of extension and diversification.

The minds behind this innovative business idea are the Gambian national Mr. Anthony Tabbal, Managing Director of GreenTech, and Miss Lenja Guenther, a German national. As a team they form a perfect combination to develop a profitable and sustainable business under high involvement of environmental and social aspects.

Test of raw material and visit to reference plants in Denmark
After testing of the raw material at the C.F. Nielsen testplant and visit to reference plants as well as the C.F. Nielsen factory in Denmark, Mr. Anthony Tabbal considers C.F. Nielsen a world leader in the planning and manufacturing of briquetting solutions. Based on this GreenTech ordered a first generation  BPU3200  briquetting unit, with a capacity of 400-600 kg/hour. So far loading of the buffer silo of the press and bagging of the briquettes is done manually.
 
Capacity increase to 750 kg/hour is possible by choosing the BPU 4000 or to 1200 kg/hour of Ø75 mm briquettes with the BPU 5000 briquetting unit.
 
Plug`n Press Solution
The BPU briquetting press units are factory tested with raw material from the customer and delivered with all internal cabelling in place. The customer is invited to take part in the testing and will therefore in most cases, based on 2 days training, be able to make the final installation by himself or assisted by a local C.F. Nielsen representative.

Raw material for free
The currently produced fuel briquettes consist purely of groundnut shells, which otherwise would have been dumped as waste. Other types of raw material will be introduced in the future, as the demand for briquettes is expected to increase rapidly.

Utilization of briquettes from groundnut (peaunut) shells
These biomass briquettes are made for cooking and heating on household level as well as for restaurants, commercial food processing or other industries using heat in their production process.

Energy saving stoves
GreenTech supports the invention and marketing of locally made energy saving stoves, which make the GreenTech briquettes even more efficient and convenient to handle, as they provide strong and constant heat, whilst using less fuel than the traditional cooking settings.

The energy saving stoves imitate the traditional cooking stove and are simple to handle. Additional insulation allows best energy efficiency whilst a smart air stream system improves the combustion process and minimizes visible smoke emission.