SustainPower delivers first locally manufactured biogas combined heat and power generator

SustainPower, together with Unique Hydra, part of the Unique Group (a world leader in providing engineering expertise, sales and rental equipment and the latest technology for the marine, diving, pipeline and subsea market sectors) has recently delivered a locally manufactured biogas electrical power generator to ibert (Pty) Ltd, one of the leading biogas companies in Southern Africa.

The containerised combined heat and power unit (CHP) produces electricity and heat in a waste to energy process which, by recovering about 90% of the energy in the gaseous fuel, is very efficient. Biogas is a methane rich gas which is produced during the breakdown of organic matter (e.g. agricultural waste, plant material, food waste etc.) in an anaerobic digestion process, and is therefore considered a renewable energy source.

Launched in May 2017 at the African Utility Week in Cape Town, SustainPower, who specialises in containerised sustainable power generation equipment, delivered its first 220kW CHP to ibert’s abattoir waste-to- biogas generation plant near Pretoria. The CHP, designed and manufactured in Cape Town, converts biogas into electrical power and thermal energy which is consumed by the abattoir.

Together with Unique Hydra’s world-class engineering and manufacturing capabilities, SustainPower offers high-quality containerised power generation equipment designed for the African market. The power packages are assembled at the facility in Cape Town using the highest local content possible, while at the same time integrating market leading international components such as the top-of- the-range MAN gas engine from Germany. Unique Hydra, as a strategic partner to SustainPower, supply the container, handle the fabrication, the electrical integration and the cooling / heat offtake system.

Bob Elshove, divisional sales director: “With experience in the delivery of complex offshore systems for the diving industry, Unique Group have become experts in the design, manufacture, and turnkey supply of multidiscipline systems into containerized format for plug and play type installations.  This makes us very well positioned to deliver biogas power plants into the renewables industry”.

“For our previous biogas plants, we imported our generator sets directly from Germany because we could not find the right cost effective technical solution in South Africa. Although the SustainPower team are the new players in the market, we trusted the team’s expertise and their innovative concept, and we have been very impressed with the end result.” says Horst Unterlechner, Technical Director, ibert biogas.

“Whilst the biogas and waste-to- energy industry in Africa is still in its infancy, it has enormous potential as energy shortages and ineffective waste management are amongst the largest challenges in Africa”, says Tobias Hobbach, Managing Director of SustainPower. “SustainPower has the best technology and the right solutions available for our clients to assist them in doing the right thing by successfully harnessing the energy contained within organic waste.”

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