LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR WASTE-TO-ENERGY IN AFRICA

INTRODUCTION

An ambitious initiative is underway to cleanse the city of Freetown in Sierra Leone, of thousands of tonnes of rubbish and revitalize acres of land, providing at least some hope for a generation of youngsters.[i] Infinitum Energy, a worldwide power project developer, has submitted a bid to build a waste-to-energy power plant that will add 30 megawatts to Sierra Leone's energy supply and sell electricity created by garbage to the government. [ii]

WASTE-TO-ENERGY IN AFRICA

At the moment, the world creates 1.3 billion tonnes of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) every year. The globe might create 2.2 billion tonnes of MSW each year by 2025.[iii] Such a prognosis compels us to explore and find solutions to our future waste management (WM) concerns such as waste to energy.[iv] Waste to Energy (WTE) is a phrase used to describe various systems that transform non-recyclable garbage into useable types of energy such as heat, fuels, and electricity.[v] WTE can occur through a variety of processes, including incineration, gasification, pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, and landfill gas recovery.[vi] WTE is usually used to refer to incineration, which burns totally combusted trash at extremely high temperatures, allowing for energy recovery.[vii] Modern incineration plants utilize pollution control devices to prevent emissions from entering the environment.?At the moment, incineration is the only WTE technique that is both economically and operationally practical on a commercial scale.[viii]

Anaerobic digestion (AD), another type of WTE, is an ancient but successful process that biologically turns organic waste into compost and biogas for electricity. AD systems have a lot of potential and may range from simple to high tech solutions, that can serve people of different financial levels.[ix] Pyrolysis is another technique that may thermo-chemically transform waste materials into clean liquid fuels.

Finally, landfill gas recovery refers to the practice of collecting and converting the gases released by municipal landfills into electricity.[x] The most typical method of collection involves digging horizontal or vertical wells into the landfill and collecting the gas using blowers and vacuums for treatment.

Waste-to-energy technologies have been used to process and dispose of a variety of waste items, although they are most commonly utilized on: municipal solid trash; commercial and industrial garbage; food waste; industrial by-products (such as bagasse produced during sugar manufacturing); animal by-products and waste (e.g., chicken droppings); and sewage waste.[xi]

When compared to renewable electricity generated by wind turbines, solar CSP, or PV panels, waste power provides baseload capacity and is thus a significantly more reliable and steady source of electricity (often attaining availability levels of more than 70%).[xii] Thus far, only one notable WTE developer has completed and begun running a big waste-fed electricity facility in Africa: the $120 million Reppie plant in Ethiopia. Cambridge Industries planned and built the plant, which was completed in 2018, to transform 1,400 tonnes of garbage per day from the Koshe landfill site in south-east Addis Ababa into 185 GWHr of power per year. Other African municipal solid waste (MSW)-fed facilities are under construction, notably Climate Neutral Group's Joburg Waste to electricity Offset Project, which aims to generate 19MW of electricity from landfill gas.[xiii]

Some biogas facilities, such as the food-waste-fed Ketu Ikosi Biogas Project in Lagos, Nigeria, and Tropical Power's 2.4MW Gorge Farm Anaerobic Digestion Power Plant in Naivasha, Kenya, have been operational for a few years.[xiv] Government views against landfill are also shifting. Cities like Addis Ababa have grown so fast that they have ring fenced massive trash dumps that were formerly beyond municipal limits.[xv] People have been compelled to live and work near, or even on, toxic landfill sites, prompting governments to investigate more sustainable waste management methods and solutions.[xvi]

If continuous feedstock supplies can be secured, WTE does not suffer from the intermittency difficulties that plague solar, wind, and even hydro energy, and is thus theoretically more dependable than other sources of renewable energy.[xvii] WTE projects have the added benefit of being able to generate cash from byproducts such as metals separated from waste and residual products, which may be converted into construction materials, agricultural feed, or fertiliser depending on the kind of feedstock utilized.[xviii]

Many African countries have the opportunity to build WTE-specific trash collection and sorting systems from the ground up.[xix] Finally, African WTE projects must be run for the advantage of the host countries, therefore it is critical to train local workforce(s) and guarantee that everyone who stands to gain from the initiative actually benefits based on the intended objectives.

LEGAL AND REGULATORY CONSIDERATIONS

There are several features that any investor would need to be aware of, in the context of WTE projects to guarantee that the legal and commercial environment for these projects are appealing to both international investors and commercial and multilateral lenders.

As a result, key components of any WTE project will include[xx]:

·????????Regulatory Structure: that encourages waste thermal treatment (surprisingly, such regulatory regimes may be more frequent in underdeveloped economies than in more sophisticated markets, such as Ireland and the United Kingdom); and an organized trash collection and structure that promotes the centralised collection of municipal and commercial garbage while discouraging illegal, uncontrolled, or ad hoc disposal of such waste.

·????????Feasibility Study: A feasibility study for the WTE generating facility is required to determine the best technology for waste type, local demands, the environment, and long-term sustainability. A research in Nigeria, for example, assessed the potential for WTE generation in 12 cities and revealed that a combination of anaerobic digestion and incineration have the greatest potential to create energy from waste. Another study discovered that anaerobic digestion is best suited to emerging economies such as Bangladesh when waste type and sustainability of WTE generating technologies are taken into account. These two instances demonstrate how WTE generation technology may differ from one country/region to the next. Before implementing the WTE project in a certain nation, city, or region, a feasibility study should be undertaken.

·????????Environmental Impact Assessment: Any new WTE plant must undergo an environmental and social impact assessment, given the dangers to the surrounding ecosystem. According to Chinese research, the majority of incinerators emit substandard pollutants, with one of the causes being lack of finance for compliance with national and international emission requirements. The emission requirements may be guaranteed if a thorough environmental impact assessment is performed before the facility is built, taking into account all potential consequences. Another prevalent circumstance in the developing world is a lack of rules for conducting an environmental impact assessment with regard to WTE projects.

·????????Emission Standards: National emission requirements for WTE plants must be established before implementation, in light of international emission standards. According to a report, the failure of the WTE incinerator project in Huizhou, China, was owing to "an inadequate dioxin-control strategy due to less stringent standards, in addition to poor monitoring practices." It is also necessary to evaluate how these emissions may alter in the future. A monitoring authority, and appropriate norms and regulations, must be established.

?

CONCLUSION

Over the last decade, several important changes in Africa and throughout the world have cumulative led to the provision of a favorable environment for the construction of new waste management infrastructure in the region. African governments must take into account key considerations, to fully benefit from waste to energy technologies for increased electricity generation and supply.

[i] Idiongoabasi Udoh, Infinitum Energy to Build 30MW Waste-to-Energy Plant in Sierra Leone < https://theelectricityhub.com/infinitum-energy-to-build-30mw-waste-to-energy-plant-in-sierra-leone/?> accessed 02 June 2023.

[ii] Ibid

[iii] Waste to Energy < https://studentenergy.org/conversion/waste-to-energy/?> accessed 2 June 2023

[iv] Ibid

[v] Ibid

[vi] Ibid

[vii] Ibid

[viii] Ibid

[ix] Ibid

[x] Ibid

[xi] Waste to Energy: Africa Opportunities ( Ashurst June 2016) < https://www.ashurst.com/en/news-and-insights/insights/waste-to-energy-african-opportunities/?>

[xii] Ibid

[xiii] Ibid

[xiv] Cecily Davies,?Now is the time to turn Africa’s waste into energy <https://www.theafricareport.com/18961/now-is-the-time-to-turn-africas-waste-into-energy/ > accessed 2 June 2023

[xv] Ibid

[xvi] Ibid

[xvii] Ibid

[xviii] Ibid

[xix] Ibid

[xx] Waste to Energy in Developing Countries—A Rapid Review: Opportunities, Challenges, and Policies in Selected Countries of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia towards Sustainability < https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/7/3740?> accessed 02 June 2023.