Geothermal Direct Use for a Crop Drying Center in Guatemala
Implemented by In cooperation with Published by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Registered offices Bonn and Eschborn, Germany
“Promotion of Geothermal Energy in Central America (Geo I)” GIZ Office San Salvador Boulevard Orden de Malta, Casa de la Cooperación Alemana, Urbanización Santa Elena, La Libertad, El Salvador, Central America T +503 2121-5145 F +503 2121-5101
E [email protected] I https: https://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/78071.html I www.sica.int/energias4e/
As of September 2020
Authors Helen S. Carpenter Based on the feasibility study conducted by: Mauricio Muñoz, Sofia Vargas Centro de Excelencia en Geotermia de los Andes CEGA
Editing Isabel von Griesheim, Max Fernandez, Ana Lucía Alfaro and Karla Hernandez (GIZ)
GIZ is responsible for the content of this publication On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Design and layout Plasmático Media Lab (Consultant), Karla Hernandez and Neimy Giron (GIZ)
Photo credits Mauricio Muñoz
2 Lake Amatitlán is the 4th largest water body in Guatemala.
This lake used to be a preferred touristic attraction as nearby hotsprings were popular among visitors.
3 This summary presents findings from research on the technical, economic, and social feasibility of developing a geothermal direct use pilot project in Guatemala. The research took place from 2018 to 2019 and forms part of the regional project “Promotion of Geothermal Energy in Executive Central America (Geo I)” (2016-2020), which was implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on Summary behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The objective was to provide technical support as well as incentives to invest in geothermal energy in Central America. The main counterpart on the project was the Central American System for Regional Integration (SICA).
The technical support from GIZ will continue in a second phase that focuses on geothermal heat processes in Central American industry (2020-2023). In Guatemala, with the goal of establishing a geothermal direct use project, GIZ collected data and information and established relationships with potential stakeholders. In 2018, GIZ commissioned the Andean Geothermal Center of Excellence (CEGA) to research the feasibility of developing a direct use project. The local community supported the initiative, welcoming a plan to create the country’s first direct use geothermal crop drying facility. Guatemala possesses multiple underutilized geothermal resources that could be harnessed to improve businesses, while at the same time, improve opportunities near geothermal areas where there are high levels of social and economic vulnerability. In the El Cerrito community on the southwestern bank of Lake Amatitlán, access to crop drying and storage facilities that use geothermal heat could improve farmers’ production and profits. The research indicated that the community could support the development of a crop processing center, and, moreover, that it would benefit them. The processing center will promote agricultural development and economic progress among Amatitlán area residents, who have a strong relationship with the thermal spring. Producers will gain time, grow income, and learn about geothermal energy. A drying and storage center based on direct use of geothermal GIZ Experts taking temperature measurements energy not only keeps carbon emissions low, it can during the field trip to Lake Amatitlán. also promote sustainable community development.
4 Benefits of a drying center
Traditional coffee drying method used in industries in Guatemala.
The first of its kind in Guatemala, the proposed area, so the proposed project fills an important geothermal drying center will improve the processes gap. For pineapple producers, the drying center will for drying, storing, and commercializing crops, and allow increased production. The use of geothermal create jobs. GIZ researched the project’s feasibility energy reduces drying time considerably without in terms of costs, risks, and opportunities, and fossil fuels and thus avoids emitting carbon. At the technical, social, and economic requirements. The same time, the technification of the drying process result of careful planning, the drying center includes stabilizes and optimizes product quality regardless an initial pilot phase, where the project will focus of weather conditions, which makes the direct use on corn, beans, and pineapples—crops with the of geothermal energy a valuable anecdote to the highest potential for steady and profitable sales. unreliable drying and storage conditions associated Over time, new crops may be added. For grain with climate change. producers, there are no other drying centers in the
5 An innovation that improves the local economy
Lake Amatitlán serves many purposes to the local population, including water supply for domestic use (household shores and sanitation), produce irrigation and other industrial activities.
The Amatitlán municipality is notable for its high The drying center can build the local economy in level of vulnerability and unemployment. The main important ways. Notably, access to high-quality challenges residents face are food security, access processing facilities can help producers increase to education, citizen security, and unemployment. the quantity of goods that they bring to the market. As recently as 2013, Amatitlán (population 120,000) There is a need to improve the agricultural practices had the highest homicide rate in Guatemala. to increase production. Currently, corn and bean Agriculturally, the area of interest is characterized producers harvest their biannual crops and then by small and isolated production. Corn and beans dry them naturally on fields or in homemade are the most widely grown crops in Amatitlán. artisan facilities, a process where they can lose Guatemalan corn and bean producers are poor (68.5 approximately 10 % to 30 % of their harvest due to %) or extremely poor (20.5 %). Poverty leads to highly damage from sources such as rain, mold, and pests. precarious production conditions—approximately 45 They sell their produce to intermediaries. Pineapple % of corn production and 37 % of bean production is producers harvest one crop per year. They dry about for self-consumption. Pineapple is the most widely 10 % of their harvest; a drying center, however, grown crop in Villa Canales, the community adjacent would allow them to produce more dried pineapple. to Amatitlán. Pineapple is a profitable crop and Challenges local farmers face are organizing dried pineapple a profitable commodity; by offering themselves and increasing commercialization access to drying services, pineapple producers can capacity. A drying center helps local producers expand their businesses and generate income for organize and empower themselves while improving the drying center. production and commercialization processes. Using
6 Dryng Center Activities Dryng Center Activities
Pineapple Corn & Beans | Receiving: Move pineapple from trucks | Receiving: Move beans and corn from to the grain processing room. trucks to the grain processing room.
| Pineapple quality control: Perform | Quality control: Perform quality control quality control inspection based on inspections on samples to establish level a sample of pineapples, examinig of humidity and percentage of impurities. the level of sunburn, level of decay, | Cleaning: Clean beans and corn to and uniformity of size and shape. remove impurities and weeds. | Pineapple peeling and slicing: | Grain-drying: Dry grains in drying beds. Peel and slice pineapple. | Shelling: Shell corn to separate | Pineapple-dryng: Weigh, package, and kernels from cobs. seal died pineapples for marketing. | Cleaning: Clean beans again to | Distributing products to consumers by remove all remaining impurities. transporting them to markets, public institutions, and government warehouses, | Separating and classifying: Perform or selling them directly at the warehouse. final quality control inspection and remove poor quality grains.
| Packaging and storing: Package dried Figure 1. Drying center activities for pineapple. grain products (e.g., in 46kg-bag “quintals” ) and store in warehouse. dryers, producers can preserve more of their crops | Distributing products, and and do so at a faster rate, decreasing the time it government warehouses, or selling takes to prepare them while increasing the quantity them directly at the warehouse. available to sell. Bean and corn producers can dry their crops soon after a harvest instead of leaving them in fields. They can control the amount of drying time and the temperatures for drying, skillfully calibrating Figure 2. Drying center activities for corn and beans. moisture levels, yielding reliable and dependable quality. Afterwards, producers can safely store dried business. The center will purchase crops at fair produce in the warehouses, strategically saving prices, and then dry, store, and commercialize them the crops to sell later, either throughout the year or for profit (Figures 1 and 2). The center’s activities during specific seasons when prices are higher. The will generate income to cover capital expenditures availability of crops outside of harvest time allows and operating expenses, including compensation producers to better control their incomes. for five employees. Additional financial details are summarized below. The resulting crop processing In addition to providing services and facilities for center will sustain itself for the proposed ten producers, the drying center will add revenue to years and, hopefully, serve as a local institution for the local economy by operating a crop processing agribusiness for many years beyond.
7 Direct use of geothermal energy
Coffee Processing Company in Lake Amatitlán: Understanding the traditional way in which coffee is processed allowed GIZ experts to better designed a geothermal direct use solution that could fit the coffee industry needs.
The proposed center will be based on direct use of The facilities that will rely on geothermal direct use geothermal energy. Specifically, the dryers and the are grain dryer and a pineapple dryer. A warehouse climate-controlled warehouse will recover heat will not require geothermal direct use. from a thermal spring south of Lake Atitlan. Lake Amatitlán is surrounded by active volcanoes such as Grain dryer. The center will include one bed- the Fuego-Meseta volcanic complex, which includes type dryer with a three-ton capacity for corn and the Fuego and Acatenango volcanoes and the Pacaya beans. These dryers will decrease drying time to one volcano. In addition, the inactive Agua volcano is day. Considering seven months of production, 21 located nearby. The proposed site is a concession field days per month, and 12 hours per day, the annual south of Lake Amatitlán that started production in thermal consumption is about 15,000 kWht. When 1998, when the National Institute of Electrification operational, it is estimated that the dryer will (INDE) installed a 5 MW wellhead unit. In 2003 the produce a flow cooldown in the thermal spring of geothermal field was given in concession to Ormat 2.5 °C during full capacity working conditions. Company, who renamed it Ortitlán. By 2015, there were two units of 12 MWe and one unit of 1.2 MWe Pineapple dryer. The center will include one that run with five production wells and two injection pineapple dryer with a 200kg capacity. Taking into wells. The geothermal field is known as Amatitlán account an ambient temperature of 25 °C, drying geothermal field, but the concession field is the temperatures of 50 °C, and a drying period of Ortitlán concession field. 24 hours, the power capacity of the pineapple dryer is
8 90°55 W 90°50 W 90°45 W 90°40 W 90°35 W 90°30 W 90°25 W