Pictured: PEETS exhibition stand at the Energy Indaba, Sandton Convention Centre which was held from 19 to 21 February.
A newly created unit, within the broader University of Johannesburg context, is focusing on developing intellectual, technological and well-defi ned practical solutions for the multitude of energy and environmental challenges within the South African milieu, director of technology station Mansoor Mollagee tells Chantelle van Schalkwyk. The core business of the Process, Energy and Environmental Technology Station (PEETS), according to Mollagee, is in the energy (focusing on renewables and energy efficiency) and environmental spheres (focusing on water, air and solid waste), with the emphasis on waste-to-energy. “Our role is to prove that technologies can be rolled out and commercialised using the intellecusing the intellectual capacity within the university.” Essentially, says Mollagee, PEETS moves from the premise that the UJ’s faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment has a 7 000-strong student base, a considerable postgraduate pipeline at master’s and PhD level and approximately 200 academics at its disposal. These intellectual “resources” are in addition to the over 1 000 trainees eligible for internship in the technology and training programme that are “being churned out” every year across 10 to 12 different disciplines. “Harnessing human capacity in a contextual manner is really where a lot of the problem originates because there is traditionally a big chasm between universities and industry – and that is where we envision our role,” says Mollagee, adding that the issue is not skills but rather the relevance of those skills to the local markets and challenges. “It is purely the idea of harnessing the human capital within a real time, real world context and then focusing it on the problem at hand in order to galvanise the role players towards a sustainable solution.” Contextual analysis: 1. Air
The focus in this context for the unit is on investigating emissions from industrial activity in the engineering and mining sectors, primarily. “There is appropriate legislation that was recently modified, e.g. the Air Quality Act, so our idea is to iron out the kinks that prevent companies from complying with the law,” he states. Mollagee believes that the current “carrot and stick” approach is not necessarily always the most beneficial approach and is actually having a negative effect on the growth of SMMEs in the sector. In addition, the capacity to enforce this approach is 8 – RéSource May 2013 PEETS, UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG Resourceful innovation A newly created unit, within the broader University of Johannesburg context, is focusing on developing intellectual, technological and well-defi ned practical solutions for the multitude of energy and environmental challenges within the South African milieu, director of technology station Mansoor Mollagee tells Chantelle van Schalkwyk. also lacking. “The main challenge therefore comes down to technical competence and the ability to implement lasting and sustainable solutions while bringing companies closer to compliance with the law.” On a project by project basis, the unit assesses a particular operation, specifically evaluating the extent to which the operation contributes towards harmful emissions and technological interventions to mitigate this. “In this arena, we work with all tiers of government, whether national, provincial or local, to make these interventions relevant and help realise already established targets.”
The primary challenge in the context of drinking water is the optimal utilisation of the resource currently available to us as a country. “We are losing water at the rate of billions of litres per annum that are unaccounted for,” continues Mollagee. As such, the focus is on the capacity of the coalface of service delivery – municipal officials. “We are looking at interventions and specifically setting up facilities that can train municipal officials in the already prevalent and apparent challenges, like leakage detection, how to do a water audit and so forth,” explains Mollagee, adding that he believes it is pivotal that this problem be addressed on a micro pilot scale, municipality by municipality. The intervention will start in Limpopo and Gauteng jointly, before being rolled out on a larger scale. PEETS has, however, taken a different approach to addressing the challenges faced in the wastewater context. “We are sitting with more than 800 water treatment plants, of which at least 400 are operating at critical levels in the last Green Drop report. We require more than R500 billion to upgrade and maintain existing infrastructure and build new treatment plants because it has gone into a state of disrepair. But blame is not the issue – we as PEETS are interested in how we are going to solve the problem sustainably, ”he says. Regionally, PEETS has started by focusing its proposed interventions on KwaZulu-Natal. “We are looking at creating strategic partnerships with international investors where they will come and build the plant at no cost to the municipality, recovering their cost per kilolitre through water purchase agreements with the municipalities, over sustained periods of time,” states Mollagee. Obviously, challenges arise around governance and municipal finance management, but these can, to a large degree, be solved through establishing sound public-private partnerships (PPPs). “I think the solution lies in forming solid PPPs driven by technically competent entities, be it us or similar role players, so t at the related politics is sidelined,” he continues. A further wastewater focus – and a major driver in the unit – is the waste-to-energy aspect. The unit is engaging Johannesburg Water on a project that assesses the use of the sewage’s low-grade methane emissions to generate electricity, wastewater treatment plant by wastewater treatment plant. “These interventions are about rolling out implementable, bankable, scalable pilot projects that feed into government’s drive for increasing human capacity development, technology transfer and job creation,” says Mollagee. 3. Solid waste
According to Mollagee, the context locally with regards to solid waste and the related legislation is good; the ideal of a zero-waste-to-landfill is fully realisable. “It is possible to move to a zero waste–to-landfill reality not only on a policy level, but on a realised implementation level; however, the issue is cascading this idea and its related implications down to a micro-level within communities and municipalities.” The technology to make this a reality, however, is proven and readily available – as is the case specifically with waste to energy, which is where the unit is specifically focusing its efforts in this sphere. “The problem with waste to energy, particularly locally, is the cost of rolling out the technology. Our approach as PEETS is going to be very different, looking at localising the technology so that it becomes affordable within the South African context.” Proven processes
PEETS, however, is not about merely providing intellectually driven solutions – it is more than willing to practise what it preaches. A good example of this is the implementation of the abovementioned technologies on the Doornfontein Campus in Johannesburg, where the unit is based. Part of the project includes a 1 MW (generation capacity) photovoltaic installation of a few thousand solar panels on all of the campus’s rooftops to mitigate the current consumption and move off-grid. “The idea is to reduce our dependence on the city power grid, and if this proves to be successful, it will be the largest mass-scale rooftop photovoltaic installation in the country,” continues Mollagee. Once the solar installation is complete, the unit will move on to processing all waste generated on-site and piloting waste-to-energy technologies, as well as assessing the efficacy of harvesting its own water and digesting the campus’ own sewage. “I think within three to five years we will have achieved all this and it will stand as proof that similar integrated energy pilots can be implemented on a micro-scale in South Africa and become a major contributor towards job creation,” concludes Mollagee.
