BIOGAS TRAINING - Technology in South Africa

Biogas Training on the state of the technology in South Africa and the various aspects to consider.

After World War II a British fighter pilot, L. John Fry, settled in South Africa and started a pig farm. In 1957 he built the world’s first commercial anaerobic digester and produced biogas from pig manure. The following year he generated electricity from biogas to power pumps on the farm.

69 years on, largely due to cheap power and despite expanding landfills, South Africa still has a fledgling biogas industry, some way behind world leaders Germany (8,900), USA (2,200), Britain and Switzerland (600 each). The country boasts 300 bio-digesters of which only 50 are registered commercial biogas plants, larger than 100kW.

In South Africa today, biogas has the potential to displace 2,500MW of grid electricity, equivalent to the size of Eskom’s Arnot coal-fired power station in Mpumalanga, commissioned in 1975. When you consider that South Africa accounts for about 1.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions; that emissions increased by 24.9% between 2000 and 2010; that in excess of 40 million tonnes of biomass and organic waste is generated annually; that agriculture is a key activity in all nine provinces and that energy costs have spiralled beyond 300% in eight years, then renewable energy, and in particular biogas power generation, presents a strong business case.

In summary, the factors driving the acceleration of biogas plants in South Africa are:

Regulatory framework promoting renewable energy,
Green funding and incentives,
Energy security (unreliable grid supply and ever-increasing tariffs),
Widely available, untapped feedstock sources, e.g. landfill sites reaching their capacity, a significant agriculture sector and approximately 200 wastewater treatment plants nationally, and
Government’s commitment to cleaner energy sources.
The food versus energy debate appears to be silenced by studies which claim that South Africa is blessed with an over-abundance of arable agricultural land opening the way for the production of agricultural biogas and biofuel feedstock crops.

Some of the clear and obvious benefits of biogas are:

Employment creation,
Landfill diversion,
Reduction of waste disposal costs,
Diesel substitution in busses, trucks, and taxis by purified biogas
Satisfying a growing co-generation demand, and
The aeration and addition of magnesium and phosphates to depleted digestate produces fertilizer and compost.

Aside from the obvious benefits, there are positive signs that many of the inherent threats to and weaknesses of the biogas industry are being addressed, viz:

Limited funding for small projects is being overcome by government incentives, foreign funders and a gradual appetite by local banks to participate in long-term biogas financing,
The rising coal price and quality problems present a competitive opportunity for biogas, and
Sectoral competition is mitigated by the interest and early participation in biogas projects from farmers and large waste management companies.

This relatively young technology is dynamic, so expect a continual improvement of current designs and methodologies. This is clear from ongoing research at the German Biomass Research Centre in Leipzig, Germany, where the objectives of further research focus areas on biogas are:

Flexibility in terms of substrates and litigation,
Process monitoring and control,
Reduction of emissions,
Increasing efficiency and reducing costs, and Coupling of material and energy use of biomass.
Nevertheless, further evidence of the growing importance of biogas is borne out by its prioritisation over other forms of renewable energy: at 12.8% it outstrips the contribution to the national electricity grid in Germany of solar PV and wind power generation.

Bio2Watt’s 5MW biogas plant in Bronkhorstspruit supplying electricity to BMW SA is the forerunner of a new commitment to tap into potential South Africa offers. Clean Energy Africa’s New Horizons and Anaergia have turned the soil on construction sites for new biogas plants in the region, each with future plans of three new commercial biogas plants per year. It can therefore be predicted that a very different biogas landscape will exist five years from now, where the value of the commercial biogas opportunity is tapped to provide the South African industry with a viable alternative energy source.

Видео BIOGAS TRAINING - Technology in South Africa канала Blackdot Energy Engineering