ExxonMobil may be busy making hit after hit on its prolific Stabroek block off Guyana, but the US supermajor has also provided support for a pioneering bio-energy project at one of the country’s educational institutions.
The Texas-based giant, which this week unearthed its fourteenth discovery on its operated block, has provided a portion of funding for a new bio-energy gasifier that has been tested at the University of Guyana’s Faculty of Agriculture & Forestry.
The system, which was launched in July, uses materials such as wood, grass pellets and coconut shells to produce electricity and bio-char fertiliser, and is capable of producing between 16 and 18 kilowatts of power, according to local newspaper the Guyana Chronicle.
A test this week was due to ascertain if the gasifier could be used to power the whole of the three-level faculty building in the capital Georgetown.
The Chronicle said ExxonMobil has provided funding to the tune of G$4 million (US$19,000), with the Guyana Colony Geology & Mines Commission (GGMC) putting in G$2 million and Progress in Education for Sustainability & Development Opportunities for Aquaculture in the Caribbean (PESCADO) also providing support.
