Seminar on Green Research and Innovation gives City greenlight
30 June 2016
Several new, innovative and environmentally sustainable ideas being explored by the City of Johannesburg to boost its Green Economy have been given the thumbs up by experts.
The City’s Department of Economic Development, in partnership with the University of Johannesburg’s Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (FEBE), this week hosted a Green Research and Innovation seminar at the Anglo-Ashanti Conference Centre to engage academics, labour, the research sector and facets of government to identify the best and sustainable green solutions going forward.
This is key to the City’s strategic objective to develop a Green Economy aligned to the National Development Plan and the Gauteng Provincial Government Strategy, which calls for a transition to “clean, innovative, resource-efficient, low-carbon technologies and infrastructure”.
Addressing participants at the seminar, Councillor Willie van der Schyf, the City’s Chairman of the Section 79 Committee for Economic Development, said the ideas being explored had the potential to complement other green gains that had been made.
“Our Green Economy agenda has seen us launch our fleet of dual energy green buses, which are much more energy-efficient and cost-effective, effectively building a sustainable urban transport system that places the environment first.
“We’ve also seen the first successful Green Fund Challenge that produced 10 patented green technologies,” he said.
Some of the initiatives presented at the seminar included a biogas project, solar PV technology and the conversion of stone to paper. On the biogas project, Prof Charles Mbohwa, Vice-Dean of Postgraduate Studies, Research and Innovation at the University of Johannesburg, said key findings from waste quantification measures at both the Robinson Deep and Joburg Market landfills had revealed the initial proposed tally of one ton of food waste to fuel one bus daily was not feasible. He suggested that this be increased to at least 50 tons to run up to 20 buses on potential converted biofuel.
A student under his mentorship, Godwell Pahla, said the torrefaction of food waste was also assessed as a possible alternative to coal in coal-fired boilers.
“Our findings revealed that the conversion of food waste to biogas and bio-coal has the potential to reduce pressure on landfill sites, create employment and reduce greenhouse emissions. However, further feasibility studies are recommended to commercialise the project,” added Pahla.
Georgina Ryan of Trade and Industrial Relations Strategies (TIPS) said while looking at the feasibility of implementing solar PV technology on municipal buildings it was crucial to note the policy landscape, recovery costs and sustainability of the option. Feasibility studies were conducted by TIPS, the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies for the City on Solar PV and revealed encouraging findings.
“How to procure renewables is key and one positive option we found was for the City to look at self-generation with small modular plants rather than with a large plant. Solar panels on municipal buildings appear readily implementable. However, the ongoing feasibility of this lies in the power of partnerships,” added Ryan.
Energy specialist Chris Yelland said this option was a crucial for the City to prevent “grid defection” by the private sector.
Dr William Stafford of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research said two options were considered – building rubble and mining waste. With over 1 143ha occupied by major dumps in the City, building rubble and mining waste is readily available. Johannesburg accumulates two million tons of building rubble annually, with over half of it used as cover material on landfill sites to settle waste.
Dr Stafford said it would be feasible to produce between 4 000 and 15 000 tons annually and combine efforts with existing stone-crushing operations, with only fine fraction stone required.
“Using building rubble to convert to stone paper looks profitable. The process is definitely feasible,” said Dr Stafford.
He said, however, that using mining waste presented health concerns.
“The potential in terms of resources is huge. However, the presence of uranium is a showstopper for this option. Until we can develop the technology to remove the uranium parts per million to negligible levels, the 3 203 mega tons of legacy mining waste is not safely convertible to stone paper,” he said.