Uganda: U.S. Firm Takes Over Garbage Energy Project

Yasiin Mugerwa
Kampala

PLANS for the construction of a gasification plant involving the conversion of garbage into energy will soon get underway at Lubya near Kampala.

Taylor Biomass Energy Ltd, a company based in New York, USA, is in the final stages of undertaking the $85 million investment.

The project will involve recycling garbage, which would then be converted into electricity.
The firm is one of several companies, which have invested heavily in the development of waste-to-energy gasification projects in the US.

Company President Jim Taylor was in the country late last month on a fact-finding mission and to finalise contractual obligations with the government and other stakeholders.

"As we come close to signing the contract with authorities, we appeal for government support. We have already approached all the stakeholders including Kampala City Council and we are happy to report that we are excited to take over this deal," Mr Taylor said.

"No bank will touch any new first-commercial technology process," Mr Taylor said.
"The first one, you have got to pay for out of your pocket. Or, in this case, you have got to go to the government."

Mr Taylor also revealed that the Buganda government had donated the 20 acres of land in Lubya for the construction of the plant.

In conjunction with SASAM Energetics 1 Ltd, a local company dealing in waste technology, Taylor would collect household garbage and transform it into gas.

The gas would then be burned to run generators that would produce more than 30 mega watts of electricity.

Mr Taylor said the multimillion-dollar plant would take in more than 500 tonnes of garbage per day.

The plant is based on technology that has been in development for decades but now appears ready to make its debut in Uganda.

He told Daily Monitor in an e-mail that rising oil prices and tight energy supplies in the country have spurred interest in renewable resources and that the accumulation of garbage heaps in the city has also become a major problem for city residents.

"Gasification, the process of turning biomass into fuel gas, offers solutions to garbage problems. Virtually all biomass, which makes up the vast majority of the waste stream, can be gasified," he said.

"In its broadest definition, biomass includes wood, paper products, food, leather and even some plastics."

Mr Taylor said gasification, which takes place in an oxygen-starved chamber, generates little pollution into the environment while creating a gas that can be substituted for natural gas.

Source : http://allafrica.com/stories/200704120018.html