The SA National Defence Force (SANDF) will be taking “green soldiering” to the next level by installing biogas plants that will enable two military bases to reduce or eliminate the use of fossil fuels to cook daily meals for over 200 people.
The SANDF is doing this to mark Global Recycling Day today. Established in 2018 by the Global Recycling Foundation, the day aims to help recognise and celebrate the important role recycling plays in preserving Earth's finite primary resources and to secure the future of our planet.
The biogas plants at the two military bases have been installed with support from the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI), and will turn kitchen food waste that is normally sent to landfill into biogas which will reduce the amount of coal-fired electricity used in one kitchen and eliminate the use of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) in the other.
The biogas plants are expected to reach full production in early 2023.
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The biogas project is one of several waste recycling and energy saving programmes being undertaken by the SANDF in partnership with SANEDI, the state-owned agency that conducts energy research and development and promotes energy efficiency on behalf of the government.
“The Department of Defence (DoD) and the SANDF are keen to save costs in energy usage and to ensure that the SA National Defence Force has security of energy supply in a constrained energy system,” explains SANEDI manager of renewable energy Dr Karen Surridge.
“The biogas project is also very much in line with the SANDF’s green soldiering concept under which it has introduced strong environmental protection measures in its operations.”
The SANDF’s biogas installation will make a difference.
The United States Energy Information Administration (USEIA) explains that biogas is an energy-rich gas produced by anaerobic decomposition of organic materials such as food waste. Biogas is composed predominantly of methane and carbon dioxide (CO2). Biogas can be burned directly as a fuel or treated to remove the CO2 and other gases for use just like natural gas. Treated biogas may be called renewable natural gas or biomethane.
The USEIA further explains that “anaerobic decomposition of biomass occurs when anaerobic bacteria, bacteria that live without the presence of free oxygen, eat and break down, or digest, biomass and produce biogas. Biogas forms in and can be collected from municipal solid waste landfills and livestock manure holding ponds.”
Biogas can also be produced under controlled conditions in special tanks called anaerobic digesters which the SANDF will be using. The material remaining after anaerobic digestion is complete is called digestate, which is rich in nutrients and can be used as a fertiliser.
* The mission of Global Recycling Day, as set out by the Global Recycling Foundation, is to convey a message to world leaders that recycling is “simply too important not to be a global issue, and that a common, joined up approach to recycling is urgently needed.”
The mission also involves requesting people across the planet to think of resources, not waste, when it comes to the products around us. “Until this happens, we simply won’t award recycled goods the true value and re-purpose they deserve, ” says the Foundation.
Global Recycling Day has birthed countless initiatives by governments, civil society groups and the private sector since its inception and has impacted environmental action and awareness in profound ways all around the world.