The South African Forestry Co. Safcol is investigating the possibility of producing electricity from forestry waste. The company believes that forestry waste of 200 tons could generate more than 20 MW of electricity. Safcol spokesperson Leslie Mudimeli, told Engineering News Online, that the company had already done studies to determine whether it had enough forestry waste to be able to consider cogeneration.
Safcol issued a tender for a study to investigate the most effective way to use the waste for power generation with the results expected within the next two months.
“We believe that with the amount of wood waste available and the anticipated waste from other sectors, such as agricultural waste and municipal organic waste, we will be able to fall within Eskom’s determined required range of 5 MW to 100 MW,” commented Mudimeli.
“We think we can produce above 20 MW, but the study will [determine] the exact amount that we can produce,” Mudimeli said.