Dr. Gilbert Ayine Akolgo

Dr. Gilbert Ayine Akolgo is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Agricultural and Bioresources Engineering, University of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyani. He has Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Agricultural Engineering and a PhD in Bioenergy. His research interests are in Bioenergy, Agricultural Mechanization and the application of Biochar as a Soil amendment tool.  Dr. Akolgo coordinated a project funded by Agricultural Innovation MKTPlace titled; Design, Modelling and Evaluation of the Performance of a Multi-Feed Biomass Gasifier. The team designed and constructed a multi-feed biomass gasifier stove (MFGS) as an alternative to traditional cookstoves based on the principle of gasification. The MFGS produced biochar as a coproduct, which was tested on a demonstration farm of maize and cabbage. The testing of the biochar demonstrated that application of biochar significantly increased soil organic matter (SOM) from 3.88% (for control) to 5.72% at biochar application rate 20 ton/ha and 0 ton/ha of NPK. Dr. Akolgo is currently a member of the UENR team working on Renewable energies for Africa: effective valorisation of agri-food wastes (REFFECT-Africa project).  Based on his experiences, Dr. Akolgo is directly involved in the field data collection in the areas of biomass feedstock and energy needs, the design and installation of the gasification plant for electricity and the field testing of biochar.