cost of technical assistance will be in­cluded in the proposal. The PPU candecide whether to fund the technicalassistance component of the proposalthrough its Technical Assistance Pro­gramme.

The local financial institutions areentirely autonomous in their approvalof renewable energy project propos­als: they can finance approved pro­posals under their regular creditfacililties or approach COFIDEIPPUfor financing, risk-sharing and tech­nical assistance. The local financialinstitution is responsible for debt col­lection and project supervision, andwill be autonomous in establishing

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the interest rates for the clients.COFIDE (the second tier) lends to thelocal financial institutions (the firsttier) at about 12%.

5. Areas and extent of support

The programme arranges financingexclusively for renewable energytechnologies, such as solar photovol­taics, mcro-hydropower, solar waterheaters, windmills for water pumpingand elelctricity generation, solar dry­ers, biogas installations, and im­proved woodstoves. The client has topay at least 20% of the project cost;consequently, the loan will not ex­ceed 80% of the project cost. The

loan is also limited to US$ 100,000per renewable energy project. In ex­ceptional cases, with the approval ofthe Board of Directors, the ceilingcan be raised to US$ 200,000. For ahousehold as client, the ceiling on theloan is US$ 1,000. For a micro-enter­prise, the maximum loan is US$10,000. •Winfried Rijssenbeek, SEM (DutchGovernment Support Group for En­ergy and Environment), Kastanjelaan5, P.O. Box 64, 3830 AB Leusden, theNetherlands.Phone: +31 33 4943086.Fax: +31 33 4940791.E-mail: office@etcnl.nl

Developments in thermochemical biomassconversion: conference reportT HE WORLD OF biomass conver­sion to energy divides into thermalprocesses (pyrolysis, gasification andcombustion) and biological processes(fermentation and digestion). Thoseof us who have chosen to make ourcontributions in the field of thermalconversion can be thankful that therehas been a continuing series of con­ferences focussing exclusively on thisarea, held every four years starting in1984 at Estes Park, Colorado, USA;then Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Inter­laken, Switzerland; and now Banff,Alberta, Canada, May 20-24, 1996.These may seem like exotic placesfor serious conferences on energy, buttravel to these conferences is a mini­mal reward for scientists and engi­neers working diligently in this area.

The last three conferences havebeen organized and chaired by ProfTony Bridgwater of Aston Universityin Birmingham, England. I have beenprivileged to attend all four of theconferences, first while I was work­ing on gasification at the Solar En­ergy Research Institute (SERI, nowthe National Renewable EnergyLaboratory, NREL, the US Depart­ment of Energy laboratory for renew­able energy). Since this is myprincipal area of expertise, attending

this conference is a very high priorityfor me. The proceedings of these con­ferences constitute the major refer­ence in this field with regard to bothwhat is new and the solid work that

The proceedings of theseconferences constitute themajor reference in this fieldwith regard to both what isnew and the solid work thathas gone before.

has gone before. The ultimate fate ofbiomass energy is combustion,whether the biomass is burnt directly,gasified to make a more controllablefire or chemical fuels, or pyrolysedto pyrolysis oil or charcoal intendedfor burning. However, there are dif­ferences of opinion and fads in re­search which cause shifting interestin varying these routes with specialinterest given to the new and exotic.

There were approximately 180 at­tendees at the Banff conference shar­ing their latest research in papers,posters, workshops and informal dis­cussions. Of these about forty are

"old-timers" who have attended mostof the previous meetings and have

-been in the field for a decade or more.There were five sessions on pyro­

lysis (14 oral papers, 52 posters), fouron gasification (14 oral, 36 posters)and two on direct combustion (10oral, two posters). There were alsopapers and posters on pre-treatment(analysis, standards, drying, densifi­cation) and systems.

The majority of the papers on py­rolysis focussed on the relatively new(25 years) field of "fast" or "flash"pyrolysis focussing on the yields of60% organic liquids that can be madeby pyrolysing biomass at about500°C. However, there were alsomany papers on conventional char­coal manufacture since charcoal con­tinues to be a useful fuel in manyparts of the world.

As in previous thermal conversionconferences, the commercial focus ofthe gasification sessions was onlarge-scale fluidized bed combustors,and there are now several commercialunits functioning in the world at the100 tonne/day level. However, it isnow recognized that smaller gasifica­tion units will be useful in developingcountries and a number of papers ad­dressed this question.

8 Energy for Sustainable Development • Volume III No. I • May 1996

Much of the combustion work inwood centers on commercialfluidized bed combustors. A major is­sue is the removal of alkali metalsfrom burning agricultural wastessince they can slag the boiler tubesin short order. The problem is nowwell understood and possible solu­tions are being investigated. Other

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work on smaller-scale combustion,down to fireplaces, was also reported.

While themajority of the attendeeswere from Europe and North Amer­ica, Asia, Africa, South America andAustralia also had healthy repre­sentation at this truly internationalconference. Anyone in this field willdo well to buy the conference pro-

ceedings and study them thoroughlyand thoughtfully. •

Thomas B. Reed, The Biomass EnergyFoundation, 1810 Smith Road,Golden, CO 80401, USA.Phone: +1 303 278 0558.Fax: +1 303 278 0560.E-mail: reedtb@Compuserve.com

Special issues ofEnergy for Sustainable Development

Energy for Sustainable Development is happy to announce that the firstof several special issues of the journal, dealing with Brazil, has been pub­lished. Others are being planned.

In keeping with its thrust of addressing the energy problems of developingcountries, the editorial staff of Energy for Sustainable Development havedecided to devote some issues of the journal to particular themes or devel­oping countries or regions of the world.

Currently, special issues have been proposed on the following countries orthemes:

• China

• South Africa

• India

• Privatisation of electric power utilities in developing countries

Each special issue will attempt to analyse, comprehensively and thoroughly,its underlying theme, keeping in mind the perspective of Energy for Sus­tainable Development: efficient and environmentally benign use of energy,renewable sources of energy, devices to optimise the end-uses of energy,and policies that will promote the development of these alternatives. Theywill explore the current state and future prospects of energy and sustainabledevelopment in relation to their special themes.

Energy for Sustainable Development. Volume III No.1. May 1996 9