MechChem Africa November-December 2024

A sustainable solution to SA’s waste and energy crisis SRK Consulting has been appointed by industry pioneers, Bio2Watt Energy Holdings (BEH), as independent environmental consultants for the environmental permitting processes for a new biogas plant near Pretoria. G enerating energy from waste is a concept that is finally gaining traction in South Africa. Ac cording to Darryll Kilian, part traditional dumping of waste to landfill. “By diverting waste from a range of local sources, the plant will reduce the need for new landfills,” says Moodley, who is part of the SRK environmental team on this project. “This will make a valuable contribution to government’s mandate to reduce landfill development by 50% in the near future.”

ner and principal environmental consultant at SRK Consulting, an innovative Bio2Watt Energy Holdings (BEH) waste-to-energy plant will bring benefits in terms of produc ing much-needed energy while reducing landfill requirements and greenhouse gas emissions. The BEH organic biogas plant will be located on a 5.0 ha site at Sunderland Ridge, west of Centurion, and will gener ate baseload electricity for the national grid. “The Sunderland Ridge biogas project is a great example of a project at the nexus of critical issues that face our society today, including how we man age our growing demand for energy, our increasing volumes of organic waste, and the reality of climate change – as well as food security,” says Kilian. “Operating as an energy producer by generating both electricity and gas, this facility will help the province face its landfill constraints while cutting methane emissions and creating natural fertiliser to promote organic agriculture.” The plant will process organic waste from the agriculture and food sectors to produce biogas, which will be converted into electricity for the national grid, and compressed biogas to be sold on to an off take customer. The other product of the process is digestate – a quality fertiliser that contains all the nutrients and micro nutrients necessary for modern farming. A recent audit of landfill sites in Gauteng showed that the province faces a serious and urgent challenge with its traditional waste disposal methods. The audit found that there is very limited space remaining on existing landfill sites, and virtually no suitable locations or op portunities for new sites. Natasha Moodley, principal environ mental consultant at SRK, noted that the BEH project is a trailblazer in a game changing global trend away from the

SRK consultants for the new BEH waste-to-energy biogas plant, Top: Darryll Kilian; Middle: Natasha Moodley; Bottom: Tamaryn Hale.

“At the same time, the conversion of methane to energy means a significant reduction in the volume of methane entering the atmosphere,” she says. In terms of the global warming and the greenhouse effect: “methane is up to 80 times more destructive than carbon dioxide in its impact on climate change. So this plant pushes forward circular green economy efforts in Gauteng on an industrial scale.” According to Tamaryn Hale, also an SRK Consulting principal environmental consultant involved in the project, the consultancy was contracted by BEH to conduct the environmental authori sation process, along with the atmo spheric emission and water use licence applications. Celebrating its 50 th anniversary this year, SRK has considerable experience in these fields, and there were certain fac tors which added to the learnings gained in this project. “One of the findings of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) was the presence of an extensive dolomitic belt underlying the proposed area of construction,” says Hale. “This required various adjustments to be made to the design and planning – with solutions being developed through collaboration with several specialists, including a dolomite specialist engineer, process engineers and civil engineers. The process was also facilitated by close working relationships between SRK, our client and regulators.” The project’s opportunity to sell com pressed gas also introduced the need Problem solving with experience

32 ¦ MechChem Africa • November-December 2024