PyroPower Africa

The proposed project will address unreliable feedstock supplies in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) by integrating a 100-kW steam turbine, with a pyrolysis vapour combustion system that avoids the fouling, fly ash and slagging typically associated with biomass-fired heating systems. A business case will be developed for a rural mobile payments system, giving farmers access to foreign remittances and enabling them to receive payment for their crop residues. Finally, the development of a detailed business case for a bioenergy power generation plant using rice husk produced by a rice milling technology will enable a detailed techno economic appraisal to be conducted to determine the replicability of the solution when integrated with rural food production systems.

Within the project, the research team at the University of Leicester will analyse satellite geocoded images and other cartographic data in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment to identify optimised and smart siting for the proposed bioenergy installations. Satellite imagery will be used to identify existing productive users such as farms and small holders. Relevant to the success of the proposed project is the collection of information about the potential users of this off-grid electricity to ensure that they are able to pay for the power and also develop income and improve their livelihoods. Where there is a lack of basic infrastructure data on population, housing, land use, agricultural activity and extent of the existing grid, such information may be detected from the analysis of data coming from space.

This will be achieved through the identification from satellite data (or confirmation from space if this data already exists) of the community characteristics (housing, health centres, schools) that are potential users of the power generated from this piece of equipment and which are currently off-grid, and the mapping of the agricultural activity that is located around these villages and communities and develop yield estimates of the agricultural waste. This team will utilise the latest European Commission Copernicus satellites (Sentinel-1 and 2 - which is freely accessible to anyone) to identify agricultural cropping practices in and around farms, communities and trading centres. We will also scrape social media data that can give insights into population and community activities. As an outcome from previous projects, we already hold a wealth of open source (Open Street Map) data for Africa and this enables us to make decisions without relying on government held data sets which are often out of date.

Who might benefit from this research?
There are a number of possible beneficiaries of the findings of this project. With reference to the proposal, the Route to Market is summarised as follows. The route to market offers a number of potential impacts that can be developed into outcomes that will have clear social-economic and empowering indicators. The potential impact is described in the text below in CAPITALS.

The project will:
1. Engage & evaluate the level of demand for cooperative-led energy from waste business models that pool the resources/production of rural agricultural primary producers, specifically targeting women' s groups, to economically benefit/empower them

AN IMPACT HERE IS THAT JOBS WILL BE CREATED AND THOSE JOBS WILL BE SUSTAINABLE

2. Test the performance, robustness & feedstock flexibility of a novel biomass steam turbine technology using three of the most commonly available Agro-industrial & Agricultural by-products available across SSA;

THERE IS AN ECONOMIC IMPACT HERE - IF THE TECHNOLOGY IS SUCCESFUL, THEN MANY UNITS WILL BE NEEDED.

3. Put in place partnerships with supply-chain partners that have a continental reach, & provide business critical infrastructure to facilitate & enable us to establish, replicate & access new markets across Sub-Saharan Africa.

THIS OUTCOME OF THE PROJECT WILL 1. PROVIDE JOBS FOR SUB-CONTRACTORS (INSTALLERS, TRAINING, ENGINEERS) IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. THE IMPACT OF THE REACH WILL THE WIDENED AS MORE COMMUNITY NEEDS ARE ADDRESSED. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE IMPACT WILL BE IMPROVED AS CONFIDENCE IN THE PERFORMANCE OF THE SYSTEM GROWS.

There is further impact in the increasing use and understanding of the potential of using satellite data to address energy issues in developing countries.

Other Potential impacted parties include:
PriceWaterhouseCoopers: Interested in securing long term energy deals for Africa and the financing and management of energy (renewable) projects
CarbonTrust: Carbon offsetting and reporting. Challenging companies to look at renewable solutions.
NGOs either based in or with interests in Africa: ClimateFocus, PracticalAction

How might they benefit from this research?
There could be a number of different ways:
They can look at large scale opportunities for Bio-energy power and promote the opportunities to funders and donors (such as the African Bank).
Companies can invest in the technology through employing people to provide test cases, licensing software etc.
NGOs can raise awareness of the opportunities which may result in a change of behaviour and investment in this renewable energy technology.

The main opportunity afforded by this project is scale. The system can easily generate an estimate of the potential to generate electricity across villages, towns, regions, countries and continents.