AFRICAN ENERGY: Waste Is Finding A Higher Purpose - New Energy-Efficient Processes That Is Bringing Benefits To Africa!

February 21, 2015 - AFRICA - Gone are the days when waste was just a by-product needing to be disposed of. These days, technology is giving waste a new lease on life. Waste gas and heat from industrial operations, landfill gases and biofuels from agro waste or sugar mills are increasingly being turned into electricity through an energy-efficient process that is bringing benefits to Africa.

The energy-efficient generation of heat and electricity in industrial plants is increasingly being used by GE customers across Africa as industries seek to reduce their environmental impact while meeting growing energy demand.

The Tronox Namakwa Sands furnace gas project in South Africa’s Western Cape has just won the 2014 Project of the Year award from the Southern African Association for Energy Efficiency.

Tronox Namakwa Sands installed eight of GE’s 1.7 MW Jenbacher gas engines to recycle furnace gas, a waste by-product of the smelting process, to generate electricity. This energy-efficient project reduces the environmental impact of the smelter plant and creates a source of on-site power, reducing reliance on South Africa’s constrained national power system.

While many captive projects are aimed primarily at ensuring security of electricity supply or saving electricity costs - both of which were achieved by the Tronox Namakwa Sands project - the main Tronox objective was to increase energy efficiency.

The 13.6 MW plant was launched in January 2014 purely to capture gases from the smelter operation that would otherwise be wasted. It has done that, and in addition has reduced the company’s carbon footprint, reduced its electricity costs and made the operation less reliant on the national electricity grid.

Another prize-winning development is in Kenya, where Vegpro, one of the country’s largest exporters of fresh vegetables and flowers, uses GE’s Jenbacher engines to convert waste matter into electricity for the farm. This project which was developed and built by Tropical power which recently won a major international award from the Combined Heat & Power Association.

Landfill gases are also being turned into electricity. In the first operation of its kind in South Africa, the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality uses GE’s Jenbacher gas engines to convert waste from three landfill sites in Durban. South Africa’s first landfill gas-to-energy project generates enough renewable energy to power 46 000 homes.

Tim Schweikert, President and CEO of GE South Africa, says utilizing waste to generate energy addresses key business needs and environmental impacts. “Energy efficiency is increasingly a key consideration for industrial projects. GE’s Jenbacher gas engines are designed to operate in challenging conditions, like industrial plants, enabling our customers to recycle waste by-products to create a source of renewable energy.”

Trigeneration is the production of electricity, heat and cooling all at the same time. Africa’s first trigeneration plant was introduced by South Africa’s mobile phone giant MTN at its Johannesburg head office in 2010. It was so successful that similar facilities were installed at a number of other large MTN offices.

MTN’s trigeneration process starts with the generation of electricity from GE’s Jenbacher gas engines fired with piped methane gas. Then the engines’ hot waste gases are fed through lithium bromide absorption chillers to produce cool water. This chilled water is used for the air conditioning which cools the data centre – one of MTN’s most critical areas of operations – and is then recycled for flushing toilets.

MTN has estimated that the 50% saving on its electricity bill will enable the company to pay for the facility within just five years.

Jamie Clarke, CEO of Clarke Energy, the authorised distributor and service provider for GE’s Jenbacher gas engines in South Africa, sees an increasing role for waste to energy projects. “Converting the by-products of industrial operations into a new source of electricity reduces emissions and enables clients to develop a reliable on-site power source,” he says. - GE Reports.

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