I would like to comment on the article written by Liam Ngobeni regarding the proposed CSIR biogas project (February 22, 2019). As a local resident living next to the CSIR, I have been involved with many of the issues surrounding this biogas project.
Liam quoted an environmental “expert”, Nigel Commi, saying that the biogas process “was an excellent way to dispose of waste by turning it into a useful product, leaving behind a very small residual that could be easily and harmlessly disposed of”.
This simply is not a correct assessment of the biogas process, where input waste has to be sorted and selected and input balanced according to the scientific criteria of its suitability to ferment and create energy efficiently. It is not a simple process of throwing all kinds of rubbish into a reactor. The weight and bulk of the waste itself can actually be larger than the input bulk (fermenting microbes grow and substantial amounts of water have to be added) and can be more difficult to dispose of than the original incoming waste itself.
A trip to the Bronkhorstspruit biogas plant outside Pretoria will clearly illustrate this problem where there are mountains of odorous piles of residual spent waste, waiting to be transported away from the site. The South African Biogas Association itself have a number of concerns regarding the feasibility of the CSIR proposal in its present form. One of its very experienced members is concerned that the failure of the CSIR project (should it go ahead) will negatively impact the future of more viable projects in the future.
The stated 3 Megawatt output from the proposed CSIR biogas reactor is unlikely to be available to Tshwane metro (as stated in your article), as I was reliably informed that this amount of electricity (3MW) was approximately only a third of what is currently required by the CSIR itself.
I am in favour of all forms of alternative energy, especially from renewable sources, and have personally investigated a number of these. However, in my opinion, the CSIR biogas proposal is wrong for many of the reasons given in your article, and many more not mentioned. I was informed that there is an existing biogas plant owned by Tshwane metro, but it was defunct and not working. Why not fix what is broken before we destroy a residential area?
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