South African Intensive Energy Users Score from Waste Gas-Fired Cogen Projects

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--An increasing number of South African companies whose industrial process require intensive energy inputs are implementing or considering the benefits of creating their own power supplies. This trend can increase power supply back-up in the face of the national utility Eskom's current problems, and means that waste gas and heat in the processes can be put to use in cost-effective power generation.

At the launch of the SA Calcium Carbide (SACC) (Newcastle, South Africa) cogeneration plant, Geoffrey Qhena, the chief executive officer of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) (Johannesburg), said that the country's mineral smelters and chemical plants had the potential to generate more than 2,000 megawatts (MW) from hot gases. The $14 million, 8-MW SACC plant converts waste gas produced in the carbide production process into electrical power using four GE-Jenbacher 620 gas engines.

The investment in the cogeneration plant reduced SACC's reliance on state-owned Eskom's (Johannesburg) power supply by about 20% and will lower the company's annual power bill by about $12 million, with an annual output of 45 million kilowatt-hours (kWh). It also will reduce the plant's emission of greenhouse gases by more than 350,000 tons annually and has been registered as a clean development mechanism (CDM) project.

The project managers are SLR-GreenEng (Durban, South Africa), and it was supported by Eskom's integrated demand management program. It took nine months to build.

SACC is owned by Argentina's Andina Group (Barcelona, Spain) and is the largest calcium carbide producer in the Southern Hemisphere. The product is used in steel and acetylene production.

In South Africa's Free State province, Sibanye Gold (NYSE:SBGL) (Westonaria, South Africa) is using methane gas from 800 meters below the surface at the Beatrix mine to produce 2 MW of power, with a further 2 MW planned.

About 1,900 liters of methane per second is required per MW of power produced. Methane's contribution to global warming is calculated to be 21 times higher than CO2; for every methane-fired MW produced, the methane-related carbon footprint is reduced by 30%. It also reduces the risk of a methane-related accident.

Flaring the methane involved an investment of $5 million, and the power supplied from the Aggreko (Glasgow, Scotland)-rented unit power is 33% cheaper than the Eskom supply for the mine, which requires 82 MW.

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