EnviroServ helps companies recover energy from their waste, marking a shift to more responsible waste disposal with significant implications for carbon emissions and energy efficiency.
This is by way of a gas-mixing anaerobic digestion solution that the company is rolling out at customer sites.
It has established the first facility in the country as a demonstration unit that acts as a marketing tool, and is also an integral part of the proof and design process when developing customers’ anaerobic digestion plants.
Energy security
The anaerobic digestion process of converting organic waste to biogas is not a new innovation, but it is attracting interest amid corporate concerns over energy security and carbon footprints.
EnviroServ says the anaerobic digestion solution is suitable in a wide array of industries, especially those in the organic foods, meat processing and dairy industries.
Apart from the ability to convert these waste products into biogas, the digestion plant eliminates traditional waste disposal costs. A further benefit is that a by-product of the process is liquid-form digestate that can be applied as a soil fertiliser.
EnviroServ is currently working on methods for its customers to sell this into the market and thereby enhance their return on investment.
The demonstration plant in Bellville outside Cape Town is a small-scale version of the industrial units EnviroServ is designing and installing for customers. This facility is able to process between three and five tonnes per day and produces the equivalent of 146kW/h of electrical energy, as well as three tonnes of digestate.
On average, the minimum throughput to make such plants commercially viable is between 10 and 20 tonnes per day.
The yield from the plants is dependent on the waste being processed, with pay back periods of about five years and a plant lifecycle of between 10 and 20 years.
