Cogen Africa
The biggest challenge in the development of Africa is the supply of consistent power supply at reasonable price for industrial, commercial, institutional and residential customers. Cogeneration is the most economical option for producing power and steam in sugar, palm oil, wood/timber, pulp & paper, cocoa, rice and other agro/food industries.
Most of the industries depend on diesel generators for power supply. The price of diesel in several parts of Africa is much higher than that of Asia. In several places, we came across diesel prices which were almost double when compared to that of Asian price level. Within the same country we have noticed 50-100% variation in diesel price.
The industries that require power and steam often produce steam using outdated biomass steam boilers and diesel generators. Very limited number of industries, use biomass cogeneration plants to produce steam and electricity. Most of the cogeneration plants are very old and operate at very low efficiency.
In the next 5 to 10 years, the potential for cogeneration in African countries is very high as the biomass waste availability is expected to increase to around five times or even more due to the increased cultivation in agricultural/food crops and increased productivity of existing plantations. In Africa, presently, most of the biomass wastes are either dumped or burnt.
There is a vast potential in Africa to implement modern cogeneration plants. If the cogeneration plants are designed to supply electricity to nearby industries/grid, then the revenue generation increases considerably.
Sugar and palm oil industries have the highest potential to implement these projects immediately in Africa and they learn from the experience of Asian countries for implementation.
The plants can be designed with multi-fuel boilers so that, several biomass fuels can be used in the boiler at the same time. In addition, these plants can use high pressure, efficient boilers and turbo-generators.
 sugarcane plantation |
 bagasse |
 rice plantation |
 rice husk |
 wood waste |
 palm plantation |
 empty fruit bunch |
 palm fruits |
 palm fibre |
 palm shell |
As the expected project return is very high, the financing is not a big issue for good projects. Also there are many project developers who are willing to develop and finance projects. These cogeneration projects are eligible for additional revenue through CDM CER sales.
The investment cost of these cogeneration plants depends on several aspects such as fuel, location, local situations, country, industry, etc. In Asia, investment cost of these power plant ranges from 1 to 2 Million USD per MW and it will be higher in Africa.
If the preparatory works are done properly then the implementation time of these cogeneration plants ranges from 18 to 24 months. We have experience in the development of cogeneration plants of sizes ranging from 2 to 41 MW. Whoever interested in Renewable Cogen Asia’s assistance in developing cogeneration plants, can contact us.