The New Horizons Energy bio-digester, to be opened in Athlone today by Western Cape Premier Helen Zille and Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille, will produce bio-methane and carbon dioxide by the middle of the year.
It is expected to create 80 full-time jobs and several hundred indirectly, and will consume 500t of waste a day – about 10% of Cape Town’s total.
All the compressed gas produced by the bio-technology start-up will be sold to Afrox. The bio-methane will be marketed as an alternative to LPG and diesel, and the carbon dioxide will be used in industry, agriculture and waste-water treatment.
« We have been working on this for years. It’s a dream come true, » New Horizons CEO Egmond Ottermann told Engineering News.
« We plan to have everything fully commissioned by May.
« There’s great potential for making products such as plastic bricks and roof tiles. We expect many more little industries to be established close to the plant so that we can drive zero waste to landfill. «
Organic waste for the digester will come from the City of Cape Town, food makers, shops, bakeries, restaurants and breweries.
Afrox marketing manager Heinrich Uytenbogaardt said compressed natural gas was widely used around the world.
« This is still a relatively underdeveloped market in South Africa, and in Cape Town in particular, but one we expect to grow, » he said.
« The upgraded bio-methane from the New Horizons plant is cleaner burning, with far less production of sulphur and nitrogen by-products, and it will have a far more consistent quality. «
The Industrial Development Corporation financed 60% of the plant.
« It can help to replace imported fuels by taking the waste and making gas from it.
« We also believe that there is massive opportunity for replication [of this project] throughout South Africa and Africa as a whole, » the IDC’s Raoul Goosen told Engineering News.
