Feasability Study on biomass gasification in South Africa

Client

Graininvest is part of the RussellStone integrated agribusiness group, which has established a joint venture with RussellStone Holm Group for energy services (ESCO), in particular for operater models.

Background

The graininvest sunflower oil plant in South Africa's Freestate has been suffering from load shedding for years and is thinking about self-generation. The plant produces significant quantities of high energy quality biomass.

At the same time, the edible oil refinery has considerable heat requirements (steam). These could be covered simultaneously with diesel as part of a combined heat and power system.

Objectives

DFIC was commissioned to investigate the technical and economic feasibility of cogeneration from the husks produced as biomass.

Results

The main results of the DIFC activities include

• Selection of energy production technology : Gasification of biomass
• Measurement of heat consumption
• Energy-efficient dimensioning
• Technical (pre-)planning incl. integration into the infrastructure
• Identification of suppliers, obtaining target price offers
• Identification and consideration of subsidies
• Detailed profitability analysis
  • Dynamic investment calculation
  • Levelised cost of energy
  • Sensitivity analysis
  • Scenario analysis