Pellets Special ll ts Sp A joint Swedish and Zambian venture has begun biomass pellet production in Kitwe, Copperbelt Province. Producing pellets for the cook stove market the 3 000 tonne-per-annum plant is the first such facility in Zambia. According to the UN REDD country report, Zambia has one of the world’s fastest rates of deforestation, losing an estimated 250 000 to 300 000 hectares (ha) of its 49 million ha forest cover annually. A major driver of this deforestation is the production of charcoal for household cooking. Charcoal-burning stoves are used in around 80 percent of households since other alternatives are unavailable, unreliable or too expensive. However the emissions both from the production of charcoal and from the use of these cooking stoves is a major public health concern as these are a major local source of hazardous air pollutants such as carbon monoxide and smoke. Like other companies and non-governmental aid-organizations, Emerging Cooking Solutions Zambia Ltd (ECS) is on a mission to address this issue realising that distributing clean cook stoves is one of the quickest ways to improve health and living conditions. – We do this and take it one step further by manufacturing a pellet fuel made from unwanted agro- and forestry residue to use in the stoves, explained Mattias Ohlson, the company CEO, during a marketing launch reception of its SupaMoto brand of pellets in Lusaka. ECS has developed its own efficient pellet cooking stove that according to the company uses only 500 grams of pellets for a 45 minute burn. Although the stove is more expensive than a traditional charcoal stove the fuel cost is about half. The pellet production is located in Kitwe, Copperbelt Province. The region has wood processing industries and sawdust, along with agricultural residues such as straw, are unused and abundant. – We have come a long way since we started this venture in 2011. It has been a rocky road, involving a lot of uncertainty, insecurity and personal risk. But we are proud to have managed to set up one of Africa’s first and largest pellet factories, in Kitwe, capable of producing 3 000 tonnes of pellets per year, said Ohlson adding that the company has already exported pellets to Kenya and DRC. Swedish pelleting technology manufacturer Sweden Power Chippers (SPC) supplied the equipment. According to CEO Mikael Wallin it is the first delivery by the company to a country in the Africa. Solutions for Operational Excellence www.cogentind.com 28 Bioenergy International PS1 2015 Carlos San Martín, owner of the Chilean company Propellet, explaining the plant setup to a visiting delegation. Propellet trades and manufactures pellets and retails pellet stoves in Padre Las Casas, Aracaunía. www.forssjopellets.se P E L L E T P L A N T S Wood Pelleting www.akahl .de Plants www.muyang.com www.dieffenbacher.com www.andritz.com Text: Alan Sherrard Photo: Courtesy SPC PS1/4713/AS Tapping into the benefits of pellets In 2013, Propellet started the first pellet plant in the Chilean region of Aracaunía. With a modest production capacity of around 6 000 tonnes the plan is to increase by adding another press line. The traditional heating systems in the Aracaunía region, especially in Padre Las Casas and Temuco, were causing air pollution issues due to the use of poor equipment and green sawdust or woodchips. While pellets are growing in popularity as a heating fuel elsewhere in the world, in this Chilean region pellets remained quite unknown and the availability of pellet stoves and boilers very limited. Founded in 2011 with the support of the governmental business support agency Corporación de Fomento de la Producción de Chile, Corfo, Propellet began to import the first pellet stoves and boilers. Already during the 2012 heating season the demand for pellets began to grow, so much so that a pellet shortage occurred. In August 2012 a decision was made to build a pellet plant in Padre Las Casas and by February 2013 the first pellets were produced. 500 kg per hour and rising The factory occupies 600 m2 of space and most of the equipment used is of Chinese origin. The raw material used is pine (Pinus radiata) sawdust and shavings sourced from local furniture and wood processing industries. The material is collected from the supplying companies by Propellet. The plant has a dryer with a throughput of up to 2 tonnes-per-hour, the single pellet press has a capacity of 800 kg/hour, the hammer mill manages up to 1500 kg/hour and the pellet cooler, 1 800 kg/hour. The total in investment for the plant was 538 000 EUR. However Propellet is evaluating the installation of new presses to triple the current 500 kg/hour production capacity given that the rest of the equipment allows for it and the demand is likely to exist. Eleven staff are currently employed at the plant including administration, raw materials collection, production line, packaging, storage and pellet delivery. Text & photo: Ana Sancho PS1/4724/AS Zambian pellet plant begins production
Bioenergy nr 1 - 2015
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