The Cordoba town of Ticino is recognized for having enough energy capacity to never be left without electricity. Located in the General San Martín Department, this town of 3,000 inhabitants has a renewable energy generation plant that supplies the entire town.
However, what is really new about Ticino is the ingenious idea that this community had to take advantage of the waste from one of its productions to create clean energy. It is the peanut shell, a waste converted into a biomass resource that, through its combustion, can supply the 60 blocks of this town.
80% of the peanuts consumed in Argentina are produced in Ticino and 100% is processed, since the processing plants are installed there, according to this Infobae note. The inhabitants live off this dried fruit, sow the seeds and harvest them to export them throughout the national territory.
A few years ago, the growing production of peanuts accumulated an excessive amount of shells that were difficult to transport and, in turn, were blown away and fell on vacant land, causing fires. For this reason, the inhabitants of the Córdoba town thought about using production waste to generate renewable energy.
In 2017 they began the project and in April 2018 the people of Córdoba inaugurated the Generación Ticino Biomass plant. The energy plant could be built thanks to the investment of the company Lorenzati, Ruetsch y Cía, dedicated to producing and marketing cereals, peanuts and oilseeds.
According to the company on its website, “The energy generation cycle from biomass is called RANKINE. By burning peanut shells, heat is produced that generates high-pressure and high-temperature steam in the boiler dome. This enters the turbine and expands with the aim of generating mechanical work on its axis, achieving this by activating an electronic generator that produces electricity.
He also adds: «Then, Outgoing low pressure steam is introduced into a condenser changing to a liquid state. The remaining heat is evacuated through a cooling stream: the excess water that comes from the use of the plant. Finally, a pump is responsible for increasing the pressure of the fluid in the liquid phase, reintroducing it back into the boiler.”
In total, 3.5 tons of peanut shells are consumed per hour and 3 megawatts are delivered per hour to the circulation of clean energy for the people. In this way, Ticino can have months of light to distribute to 6,000 homes thanks to the burning of peanut shells. It is thanks to this surplus that they also have the capacity to supply other nearby towns.
This content was originally published in RED/ACCION and is republished as part of the “Human Journalism” program, an alliance for quality journalism between RÍO NEGRO and RED/ACCION