Pakistan is currently undergoing a serious energy crisis. To minimise economic impact, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) has announced a project to promote market-based adoption of biomass gasification technologies for agro-processing of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan.

Drawing funding from Global Environmental Facility (GEF), the project will particularly introduce rice husk based gasification power plants in the rice producing areas in order to generate cheap and uninterrupted electricity. The rice husk is usually burnt and goes to waste.

The UNIDO’s country representative Esam Alqararah said, “Pakistan being an agricultural country possesses a fuel for future which is cheap, clean and abundant. Such projects will enable SMEs to have uninterrupted electricity to run their operations, which will increase their productivity and also help in providing low cost electricity.”The industrial development officer at United Nation, Alois P Mhlanga, had visited Pakistan for the project. He mentioned the feasibility study for this 1MW gasification plant does lay a strong foundation for finding new ways of clean energy by demonstrating technical feasibility and economic viability of biomass gasification technology, UNIDO report added.

In view of this, the UNIDO, by helping SMEs develop biomass gasification power plants, seeks to enable SMEs to contribute towards addressing the energy challenges in the country.

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UNIDO Report