Bio2Watt Energy Holdings (BEH) has appointed SRK Consulting as the independent environmental consultant to undertake the environmental permitting processes for a new biogas plant near Pretoria.

The BEH organic waste-to-energy biogas plant, located on a 5 ha site at Sunderland Ridge, west of Centurion, will process organic waste from the agriculture and food sectors to produce biogas, which will be converted into electricity for South Africa’s national grid and will also be compressed and sold to an offtake customer.

Another product of the process will be digestate – a quality fertiliser containing all nutrients and micronutrients necessary for modern farming.

“The Sunderland Ridge biogas project is a great example of a project at the nexus of critical issues that face our society today, including how we manage our growing demand for energy, our increasing volumes of waste and the reality of climate change, as well as food security,” says SRK Consulting partner and principal environmental consultant Darryll Kilian.

“Operating as an energy producer by generating both electricity and gas, this facility will help the province face its landfill constraints while cutting methane emissions and creating natural fertiliser to promote organic agriculture.”

The Sunderland Ridge project is the third such initiative from BEH.

Its first plant has been operating in Bronkhorstspruit, in Gauteng, for nearly a decade and has contributed around 100 GWh to the national grid, while construction on a second plant at Malmesbury in the Western Cape, approved to produce 9.8 MW, is set to start later this year.

“The project is a trailblazer in a game-changing global trend away from the traditional dumping of waste in landfill sites,” adds SRK Consulting principal environmental consultant Natasha Moodley, who is part of the SRK environmental team on the Sunderland Ridge project.

According to SRK Consulting, a recent audit of landfill sites across Gauteng found that there is very limited space remaining on existing landfill sites and virtually no suitable locations or opportunities for new sites, signalling a serious and urgent challenge with the province’s traditional waste disposal methods.

“By diverting waste from a range of local sources, the plant will reduce the need for new landfills. “This will make a valuable contribution to government’s mandate to reduce landfill development by 50% in the near future,” Moodley continues.

Further, the conversion of methane to energy will reduce the volume of methane entering the atmosphere.

“Methane is up to 80 times more destructive than carbon dioxide in its impact on climate change, so the plant pushes forward circular green economy efforts in Gauteng on an industrial scale,” she explains.

SRK Consulting was contracted by BEH to conduct the environmental authorisation process, atmospheric emission license and water use licence application, says SRK Consulting principal environmental consultant Tamaryn Hale, also involved in the project.

“One of the findings of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) was the presence of an extensive dolomitic belt underlying the proposed area of construction.

“This required various adjustments to be made to the design and planning – with solutions being developed through collaboration with several specialists, including a dolomite specialist engineer, process engineers and civil engineers. “The process was also facilitated by close working relationships between SRK, our client and regulators,” Hale comments.

In addition, the opportunity to sell compressed gas also introduced the need for pipeline infrastructure, in turn triggering certain additional environmental licensing requirements.

SRK’s multidisciplinary team provided in-house expertise in various technical studies in the EIA, including social impact, surface water, climate change, air emissions and noise pollution.

Kilian points out that the company also has an extensive network of professional associates whose fields were relevant to this project, such as heritage, major hazardous installations, human rights and gender impacts.

As part of BEH’s community upliftment programme, a stakeholder engagement plan and gender-based analysis were undertaken for the life span of the project.

“We received plenty of feedback and comments during the permitting phases – from the competent authorities, regulators and community members, as well as the Council for Geoscience – which greatly strengthened the EIA process,” Moodley says.

The EIA, in addition to complying with South Africa’s robust regulations, was aligned with the International Financial Corporation performance standard requirements, according to SRK.