UK supports three South African bioenergy projects through Climate Finance Accelerator

In the UK, 15 new projects from across South Africa have been announced as the second cohort of projects for Climate Finance Accelerator (CFA) South Africa support, following a call for proposals that attracted 166 applications. The chosen projects come from the energy, transportation, AFOLU (Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses), circular economy and water sectors. This follows a successful first round in 2021 that has so far seen almost a third of projects find new partners and investors.

The new cohort includes:

Alien Fuel Group

A solution to use biomass (derived from alien invasive tree species and wood waste) as a ‘green’ fuel. This fuel is used to supply heat and steam in industrial applications. The system provides cost-savings per ton of steam delivered and is easily retrofitted to existing fossil fuel boilers, using semi-gasification biomass burners, significantly reducing barriers to entry for potential customers.

Mustapha Energy

Scaling up their flagship project in Athlone, they will use state of the art proven technology to convert industrial and municipal wastes into value furthering the circular economy. Phase 1 will manufacture a refuse derived fuel for coal offset. Phase 2 will use residual waste to produce energy through a thermal power plant process. By the end of 2024, up to 400 tons per day of municipal waste will be diverted from landfill and converted into fuel, electricity, heat, recyclables and secondary materials for the construction industry.

SeaH4 (Pty) Ltd

Pioneering a consumer ready carbon neutral alternative to fossil fuels, SeaH4 uses algae to catalyse ocean-dissolved CO2 and the energy of the African sun into biofuel at scale. It uses established technologies and the fuel produced is compatible with the existing transport infrastructure and requires no changes to engines making it ideally suited to decarbonise the transport sector. It also improves ocean health and brings economic opportunities to rural coastal communities. The solution applies to 20,000 kilometres of desert shores, 13,000 of which are around Africa.