The waste to energy matrix: a possible solution to the African conundrum

Perhaps I could start with the enumeration of some very basic definitions and technology principles. Waste to Energy is the transformation of waste into a fuel to produce a source of energy. This can be done through the following methods such as Digesters to produce Biogas, a Gasification process to produce syngas, the collection and processing methane rich biogas generated by the anaerobic activity of microbes decaying organic waste in landfills or through digesters. Thermal treatment options are less suited for high organic waste processing due to the high moisture content.

Waste transformation also includes the creation of an intermediary fuel such as SRF (solid recovery fuel) or RDF (Refused derived fuel). These fuels can be used in final conversion processes such as cement kilns or retrofitted coal boilers with the required emission controls.

Thermal Treatment of waste which includes technologies such as rotary kiln pyrolysis, retort based gasifiers, fluidised beds, moving grate mass burn by way of incineration.

Incineration of waste has proven to be the most used and the most bankable way to redeem base load power to a grid and or to a large private off-taker as 80% of the world thermal power plant, such as coal power plants utilise similar technology which is a grate-combustion-steam turbine+ production of base-load power technology. Typical MSW has a calorific value, meaning it can burn. It typically contains 1/3 to ? of the energy of the same mass of coal.

The technologies vary by either adding or injecting air or suppressing air involving the production of high heat and depending on the type of waste we use as ‘fuel’.

These technology solutions have differing efficiencies, maintenance costs, input quality requirements, outputs, by-products and track records. This is where the matrix approach comes in. Currently one can assume that the more mized and low grade the waste is, the more likely the only solution for energy recovery is incineration. Coal fired power plants on the other hand require that the coal be mined and be exploited nearby the power plant involving massive investments, once a mine runs out of coal the model collapse; will we ever run out of waste?

Gasification and pyrolysis plants have intermediary gas and cooling stages that require lower levels of water in the in-feed, less contaminants and higher calorific value. Due to these higher feedstock specifications, these plants are harder to run and operate but can give higher value products, such as fuel oils, and syngas for processing to waxes, oils, plastics and other commodities. Careful understanding of the immediate community or municipalities waste management capability and economics is therefore essential to make decisions on technology and additional pre-treatment steps, technologies and scale of plant.

So what is the African Conundrum? If one Google’s exactly those two words we find “The African Conundrum one finds “Rethinking the Trajectories of Historical, Cultural, Philosophical and Developmental Experiences of Africa”. A wide subject…

If one stays out of politics and focuses on the subject at hand, with a slight increased search we stumble on real economic challenges such as; how best can Africa prosper and grow its economies? Can there be Growth without Power? We all know the answer to that question, without power there will be no growth.

Can we carry on making use of fossil fuel to power our economies? How best can we reduce our carbon Foot-print? What is the best Energy Transition policy for Africa if waste is a component we now need to consider as far as growing an economy while preserving our environment? Here are perhaps the real conundrums we need to wrap our mind around.

In order to illustrate the challenges at hand here are some staggering figures we need to take in consideration for future policy making.

While population growth slows down in developed economies, it continues to rise in Africa that will soon be home to 2.4 billion people by 2050, double of what it is today.

So with a poor electrification rate of 42% across the Continent it is extremely difficult to power the various economies with sustainable baseload energy and therefore it is undeniably one of the biggest barriers to social and economic development, along with education, water and sanitation and political stability.

We experienced an average of 56 days of power outage across the Continent (I shudder to think what the recent South African Power Outage has done to this average, as an example Senegal a total of 12h42m of load shedding in February 2019 whereas last year in Europe Austria experienced 12seconds with a 99.999% access to power.With 86 out of 100 of the world’s fastest growing cities, the continent is urbanizing more rapidly than any other part of the planet.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, waste generation is expected to triple, from 174 million tons per year in 2016 to 516 million tons in 2050. Whereas the Global waste production will only increase by 60% by the same year. Both these estimates are shocking but the alarming relative increase of waste from the African continent implies that massive action needs to be taken.

Africa is set to become one of the most important regions in the world in terms of waste generation, where more than 70% of solid waste still end up in landfills. Most landfills are informal and not to any reasonable engineering standard that protects the environment and communities surrounding these “dumps”. As a comparison, a number of EU countries already have a zero waste to landfill policies which means that there are many solutions for waste others have already mastered. Decomposing waste in a landfill generates CH4 (methane) which at least 25 times more harmful than CO2!

Methane is a large contributor to Greenhouse gas, over 20 years it is 86 times more dangerous than CO2; referring to the aggressive campaigns on CO2 are we not focusing on the wrong problem?!

Africa is the most vulnerable continent to the impacts of climate change, even though it contributes the least to global warming currently.

As a comparison the WtE (waste to energy) plants in the 28 EU countries produce enough electricity to supply just short of 18 million people per year (excluding the waste to thermal power to heat district heating in Scandinavia). This provides an efficient way for disposing of the increased amounts of high calorific waste produced by modern urban settlements and produces substantial electric and heat energy. One example of an economy that embraces this principle is Finland where 94% of non-organic waste is thermally converted into energy. Similarly, WtE can provide a localized source of base-load power in Africa that complements the welcome new trend of intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind or solar while at the same time making Africa less dependent on fossil fuel imports and cleaning up the environment.

By moving towards setting up facilities where residual waste is considered fuel and which allows the powering of municipal infrastructure and facilities for pretreatment of waste and recovery of recyclables from waste, long lasting, and value generating infrastructure is viable and can unlock private investment. This approach should evaluate the cost of lack of baseload distributed power generation, the risk of load-shedding for critical energy users and the cost to the environment and our citizens due to inefficient and unsuitable waste collection and disposal mechanisms.

However only 55% of MSW in Sub-Saharan Africa is actually collected and almost all of the recycling and pre-sorting is done by informal workers on landfills and/or off illegal dumpsites. The waste that is not collected is illegally disposed, finds its way into the environment and out collectively utilized water bodies. Systematic waste collection and it’s management are key elements to begin to mastering the transformation of waste in a controlled environment.

Did you know that 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean every year on top of the estimated 150 million tons already circulating in our marine environments; has anyone tried to swim in the Gulf of Guinea for example in Accra, Ghana? You cannot as it is a sea of plastic and garbage! It is absolutely disgusting and a shame on our behavior towards waste. We ALL bear the responsibility.

Even more concerning, 84% of Africa’s power still derives from the utilization of fossil fuel; this is despite all the current hydroelectric dams and recent solar power installations and other smaller renewable energy contributors.

These figures can make your head spin and really points to the fact that we actually have no choice to rethink our approach to a more sustainable power and waste treatment solutions. What if Africa does not take the appropriate measures now to genuinely, reduce, recycle, beneficiate and finally process our residual waste to energy and thereby create the value add that developed countries have already mastered and taken advantaged of? We will miss out.

Estimates show that, in the Netherlands only, bottom ashes as a result of waste incineration contains precious metals such as gold with a value approximately €27 million. Tapping into such source of precious metals would allow operators to increase their revenues by opening a new, local stream of secondary raw materials. e.Waste recycling unlocks huge revenues to those venturing in it; in 2017 represented USD 3 billion and expected to at least grow to a 10.5 billion US dollar market by 2024 (that is a 20% growth); so again why miss out?!

Until recently, municipalities in Africa have set the bar low on waste management and this has led to the inefficiencies in the system and the lack of long term sustainable solutions. A true, reflection of the cost on the environment and our communities needs to be evaluated and the grade and cost of waste management increased to enable the production of much needed power from waste. Innovative methods need to be developed to ensure that the municipality, project developers and the communities have the means to implement and operate this infrastructure.

So what are the Solutions, especially those we can implement fairly rapidly? A systematic educative campaign to teach on the re-usability of the waste we throw every day away; we can send a clear message on what the purpose of recycling is and how is it done.

Getting the message across that we are irreparably damaging our environment and that we need to apply ourselves to reduce this as much as possible, that there is a link between the collective problem and individual impact.   

The community at large should benefit through this industry not just by having a cleaner environment but also through Jobs, establishment of SME’s and startups that tackle the issues head on.

Let us encourage and enforce systematic waste collection, avoid the current automatic landfilling. DIF’s, government and other players in the financial sector can facilitate the industry by bringing low interest loans and grants to waste management initiatives. Some of this is already happening.

Bring more technical knowledge to start-ups and SME’s through sponsored training and establishing an association (a Waste Transformation 4 Energy has just been created in South Africa to promote WtE solutions on the Continent) to facilitate this through contact with colleges, universities and schools. Given the figures expressed in this article, in the next 10 to 20 years Africa is bound to become the most promising and exciting WtE market for manufacturers, technology providers and operators.

Making use of readily available waste is the perfect way to save precious FOREX instead of importing fossil fuel. More so usage of waste will extend the World fossil fuel reserves and will replace its controversial and seemingly ‘automatic’ usage. Smaller scale power plants avoids very large infrastructure project which carry huge costs for countries, such as the ones involving natural gas exploitation.

Simplify and accelerate the IPP procedures to enable small scale power production with preferential rates for waste to energy projects. WtE is still very absent from policy making and Public RFQ’s.

Municipalities need to be able to contract a private entity for longer than 3 years. Infrastructure programs and investment have a higher repayment time (anything between 6 to 10+ years with waste feed & off-take agreements needing to be over 15 to 20 years deals.

Shorten some of the processes involved in preparing waste for power projects such as EIA’s, feedstock contracting templates and the administrative burden linked to connecting to the National Grid. This could be done by clear guidelines and a norms and standards approach, which has worked quite well for the landfill gas industry.

On our Continent, most countries allow for MSW and toxic waste to be landfilled in the same pit; a zero to landfill policy needs to first start from forbidding co-disposal of waste which in essence will positively influence the recycling process.

Landfill taxes, taxes imposed on those not recycling a minimum of waste can unlock funds we can invest into our environment. Up/raise the recycling targets and by-laws gradually alongside of permanent waste education campaigns.

Eventually, through the cooperation with partners across the whole value chain, the WtE sector can prevent this waste from going to landfill.

PAY YOUR EELECTRICITY BILLS! The culture of non-payment of electricity bills and illegal connections does not help the energy crisis, in fact it is fully part of the conundrum; in South Africa for example an estimated 20 to 30% of Eskom clients do not remit any payment. Very little businesses – across the best value add sector of the economy - can survive if 30% of their turnover is never recovered!

Power efficiency achieved through ‘smart’ technology are ways to save power and our precious energy, let us all start by switching off 90% of the offices lights in large Metro’s! This includes government institutional and SOE’s buildings.

In my own block of flats where I live the owners can’t get to terms to not having lighting in the basement parking including during the day! It is now possible for lighting to switch on when there is movement allowing a few minutes to get from your car to your flat. It will unfortunately take more Load Shedding for some to realize that Policy starts at home; we can all make a difference and save power.

In Conclusion there are so many ways to make use of waste as a source of income. We believe using waste as a fuel to produce power is a sustainable and inevitable way to achieve a better environment. It is but a question of time before we have no choice to face the music, when waste does not carry that stigma which makes a shy away from bring it up. Those whom care to analyze what we can do with waste have done very well for themselves!

Global stress on our natural resources can be resolved by treating waste upstream (from our homes) and viewed it as a viable resource; going from a waste management logic to a waste resource management one.

Waste to energy tech is disruptive and diverse; it offers many options to those confronted by this waste issue. It remains sensible to do thorough research on how best to deal with each case scenario. For those who need more information or educational resources, feel free to contact me and ask about the waste to energy matrix.

WtE is, more so an waste incineration to energy process, a base-load renewable source of energy. It is great way to diversify a country’s energy mix, thus making us less dependent on fossil fuel and intermittent sources of energy; there are endless stocks of waste generated daily across the Continent.

The waste sector and IPP can unlock countless jobs both unskilled and skilled and we already know that waste transformation is an employer of a very wide variety of professions. In much of the developed world the private waste to energy sector is a massive contributor to the tax man and State Revenue.

Above all, a better usage (or re-usage of waste) will preserve our environment and will enhance the Global Health. We need to take action for our own good. Our environment, the one we leave to our children, needs to be protected.

Sources & references were extracted from: CEWET, ESWET, Waste Transformation 4 Energy Association, WOIMA Corporation, Google searches, Prof D. Boshoff, Witech Group. World Bank & IFC various reports. 

also visit www.witechdevelopment.com and www.woimacorporation.com