Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SteamBioAfrica (Innovative Large-Scale Production of Affordable Clean Burning Solid Biofuel and Water in Southern Africa: transforming bush encroachment from a problem into a secure and sustainable energy source)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-09-01 al 2023-02-28
SteamBioAfrica will facilitate the development of large scale, clean, secure, and affordable bioenergy in Africa. It addresses multiple challenges facing Southern Africa, availability of low carbon energy, climate change impacts and resource use efficiency. It will progress these towards clean and secure energy, water, and sustainable rural economies.
Over 120 million ha of land in Southern Africa, is degraded by invasive woody overgrowth, which is aggravated by climate change. Productive land is being lost, adversely impacting two important economic sectors, farming and eco-tourism. It currently costs more to harvest this overgrowth than can be recouped in revenue, and the problem getting worse. There is a clear and pressing need to create added value from this overgrowth, to stimulate its harvesting and promote land restoration. This needs to take place on a large scale and be sustainable.
This biomass has large untapped potential if it can be made to meet industry and consumers needs. Current firewood use for heating or cooking with open fires has been linked to over 600,000 premature deaths across sub–Saharan Africa, mainly of women and children. An alternative biofuel needs to burn cleaner, with fewer harmful emissions. Globally and across Southern Africa there is a large industrial market potential to replace coal. The global coal market is over 7,000 million mt/year, significantly larger than wood pellets (55 million mt/year) and charcoal (530 million mt/year). Whilst there are significant coal supplies in Southern Africa, the capital infrastructure for grid power generation and transmission is ageing and unreliable. Therefore, whilst industry across Southern Africa uses coal, it is primarily for thermal energy generation. There is a growing pull to more sustainable fuel, providing it is economically competitive. However, to convert coal boilers to biofuel reduces plant efficiency and involves substantial cost. There is a need and an opportunity to make woody biomass more coal-like, thereby reducing the required investment for boiler and handling facilities in feedstock conversion.
SteamBioAfrica encompasses an innovative, continuous, superheated steam processing of woody biomass. Our novel and stable torrefaction process can confer biomass with coal-like properties and make it cleaner burning. This can readily replace coal in boilers without compromising plant efficiency or requiring significant capital investment. In the previous SteamBio project (Grant No: 636865) we proved the process at an industrially relevant scale. In Spain, we processed assorted wood fractions at up to 230oC into clean burning biofuel. Knowledge developed in this preceding project is now being used to advance the technology, making it more robust and able to process a wide range of feedstock at temperatures up to 260oC. These advancements are being implemented in the new SteamBioAfrica demonstration plant in rural Namibia. Extended 18-month demonstration will provide ample validation to attract investment into upscaled commercial systems, promoting large-scale harvesting and value addition across the region.
For us to transition from the demonstration phase to post-project commercial deployment, we need to confirm more than just technical and economic robustness. Our multifaceted approach includes:
• Optimising supply chains, transferring and adapting know-how from the mature EU forestry sector to the overgrown savannahs of Southern Africa.
• Integrating social empowerment throughout the value chain, emphasising gender equality and social inclusivity.
• Grass roots capacity development enabling rural participation and social inclusivity.
• Domestic and industrial user trials to validate market opportunities, potential and demand.
• Market engagement to explore different use-cases, business models, and market requirements.
• Government engagement to increase awareness and ensure regulatory compliance.
• Environmental research to identify and avoid potential negative impacts and promote positive impacts.
• Life cycle assessment to guide system development towards social, environmental, and economic sustainability.
• Engagement with financial sectors, creating awareness and preparing for post-project commercialisation.
The project is now on track to fulfil our overall project objective: “To validate the long-term viability of superheated steam processing of harvested bush and other invasive woody biomass species in Southern Africa as a clean, affordable, and secure energy source”.
Over 120 million ha of land in Southern Africa, is degraded by invasive woody overgrowth, which is aggravated by climate change. Productive land is being lost, adversely impacting two important economic sectors, farming and eco-tourism. It currently costs more to harvest this overgrowth than can be recouped in revenue, and the problem getting worse. There is a clear and pressing need to create added value from this overgrowth, to stimulate its harvesting and promote land restoration. This needs to take place on a large scale and be sustainable.
This biomass has large untapped potential if it can be made to meet industry and consumers needs. Current firewood use for heating or cooking with open fires has been linked to over 600,000 premature deaths across sub–Saharan Africa, mainly of women and children. An alternative biofuel needs to burn cleaner, with fewer harmful emissions. Globally and across Southern Africa there is a large industrial market potential to replace coal. The global coal market is over 7,000 million mt/year, significantly larger than wood pellets (55 million mt/year) and charcoal (530 million mt/year). Whilst there are significant coal supplies in Southern Africa, the capital infrastructure for grid power generation and transmission is ageing and unreliable. Therefore, whilst industry across Southern Africa uses coal, it is primarily for thermal energy generation. There is a growing pull to more sustainable fuel, providing it is economically competitive. However, to convert coal boilers to biofuel reduces plant efficiency and involves substantial cost. There is a need and an opportunity to make woody biomass more coal-like, thereby reducing the required investment for boiler and handling facilities in feedstock conversion.
SteamBioAfrica encompasses an innovative, continuous, superheated steam processing of woody biomass. Our novel and stable torrefaction process can confer biomass with coal-like properties and make it cleaner burning. This can readily replace coal in boilers without compromising plant efficiency or requiring significant capital investment. In the previous SteamBio project (Grant No: 636865) we proved the process at an industrially relevant scale. In Spain, we processed assorted wood fractions at up to 230oC into clean burning biofuel. Knowledge developed in this preceding project is now being used to advance the technology, making it more robust and able to process a wide range of feedstock at temperatures up to 260oC. These advancements are being implemented in the new SteamBioAfrica demonstration plant in rural Namibia. Extended 18-month demonstration will provide ample validation to attract investment into upscaled commercial systems, promoting large-scale harvesting and value addition across the region.
For us to transition from the demonstration phase to post-project commercial deployment, we need to confirm more than just technical and economic robustness. Our multifaceted approach includes:
• Optimising supply chains, transferring and adapting know-how from the mature EU forestry sector to the overgrown savannahs of Southern Africa.
• Integrating social empowerment throughout the value chain, emphasising gender equality and social inclusivity.
• Grass roots capacity development enabling rural participation and social inclusivity.
• Domestic and industrial user trials to validate market opportunities, potential and demand.
• Market engagement to explore different use-cases, business models, and market requirements.
• Government engagement to increase awareness and ensure regulatory compliance.
• Environmental research to identify and avoid potential negative impacts and promote positive impacts.
• Life cycle assessment to guide system development towards social, environmental, and economic sustainability.
• Engagement with financial sectors, creating awareness and preparing for post-project commercialisation.
The project is now on track to fulfil our overall project objective: “To validate the long-term viability of superheated steam processing of harvested bush and other invasive woody biomass species in Southern Africa as a clean, affordable, and secure energy source”.
This project involves the design, construction, and demonstration of a novel process. This will enable validation of its techno-economic viability, thereby stimulating its post-project commercialisation and large-scale roll out. In the first 18 months of the project, the plant has been designed and built, then shipped and installed at the Cheetah Conservation Fund’s Biomass Technology Demonstration Centre, in rural Namibia.
Global supply chain impacts from the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine war have had a material impact on supply chain lead times and costs during the plant build and shipping. Nevertheless, the plant deployment has been completed within the project’s overall budget, experiencing only minor and manageable delays to its installation and commissioning. The project mitigated these adverse global disruptions by shifting as much of the procurement of peripherals and services as possible to the Southern Africa region, ultimately accelerating the post-project ambition towards local process plant manufacture.
The first 18 months have focussed on creating knowledge and methodologies to ensure that once the plant is operational, the project can be fully implemented. This preparatory work has included:
• Ensuring sufficient feedstock supply to the plant from Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa.
• Establishing robust scientific baselines to monitor environmental impacts.
• Identification and engagement with targeted potential domestic and industrial consumers.
• Awareness creation and engagement with value chain stakeholders.
• Modelling of the system and supply chains to assess their sustainability.
• Developing communication strategies.
• Ensuring Intellectual Property (IP) protection.
• Developing business strategies.
To date, the project has involved a high level of engagement with communities and various stakeholders in all three Southern African target countries. This has ranged from rural tribal communities to heads of Government departments and business owners. It has provided us with a high level of confidence in the veracity and viability of the project’s long-term ambitions.
Global supply chain impacts from the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine war have had a material impact on supply chain lead times and costs during the plant build and shipping. Nevertheless, the plant deployment has been completed within the project’s overall budget, experiencing only minor and manageable delays to its installation and commissioning. The project mitigated these adverse global disruptions by shifting as much of the procurement of peripherals and services as possible to the Southern Africa region, ultimately accelerating the post-project ambition towards local process plant manufacture.
The first 18 months have focussed on creating knowledge and methodologies to ensure that once the plant is operational, the project can be fully implemented. This preparatory work has included:
• Ensuring sufficient feedstock supply to the plant from Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa.
• Establishing robust scientific baselines to monitor environmental impacts.
• Identification and engagement with targeted potential domestic and industrial consumers.
• Awareness creation and engagement with value chain stakeholders.
• Modelling of the system and supply chains to assess their sustainability.
• Developing communication strategies.
• Ensuring Intellectual Property (IP) protection.
• Developing business strategies.
To date, the project has involved a high level of engagement with communities and various stakeholders in all three Southern African target countries. This has ranged from rural tribal communities to heads of Government departments and business owners. It has provided us with a high level of confidence in the veracity and viability of the project’s long-term ambitions.
During the next 18 months, we will progress the project to enable the results to be implemented in large-scale industrial deployment across Southern Africa. This will be achieved by the following.
• Optimise and validate system performance.
• Characterise products, both the solid biofuel, condensate containing biochemicals and water.
• Protect resulting IP.
• Validate the market potential of the products through user trials and optimise the products to meet specific market requirements.
• Assess the environmental, social, and economic impacts of the value chain.
• Ensure a robust and scientifically verifiable monitoring and evaluation criteria.
• Confirm market engagement and buy-in across the entire value chain. Develop a robust business plan to enable post-project commercialisation.
• Optimise and validate system performance.
• Characterise products, both the solid biofuel, condensate containing biochemicals and water.
• Protect resulting IP.
• Validate the market potential of the products through user trials and optimise the products to meet specific market requirements.
• Assess the environmental, social, and economic impacts of the value chain.
• Ensure a robust and scientifically verifiable monitoring and evaluation criteria.
• Confirm market engagement and buy-in across the entire value chain. Develop a robust business plan to enable post-project commercialisation.