Bio2Watt Energy Holdings (BEH) has appointed SRK Consulting as the independent environmental consultant for its new biogas plant near Pretoria.

The facility, located on a five-hectare site at Sunderland Ridge, west of Centurion, will generate baseload electricity for the national grid. The plant will process organic waste from the agriculture and food sectors to produce biogas, which will be converted into electricity. Compressed biogas will also be sold to an offtake customer and digestate, a by-product, will be used as fertiliser.

“The facility will help address landfill constraints in the province and reduce methane emissions while producing fertiliser,” said Darryll Kilian, Partner and Principal Environmental Consultant at SRK Consulting.

“A recent audit of landfill sites in Gauteng showed that the province faced a serious challenge with its traditional waste disposal methods with very limited space remaining on existing landfill sites and virtually no suitable locations or opportunities for new sites,” said Natasha Moodley, Principal Environmental Consultant at SRK. The plant is expected to divert waste from local sources, easing pressure on landfills and contributing to government targets for landfill reduction by 50%, she added.

SRK will conduct the environmental authorisation process and applications for the atmospheric emission licence and water use licence. “One of the findings of the environmental impact assessment was the presence of an extensive dolomitic belt underlying the proposed area of construction,” said Tamaryn Hale, another SRK Consulting Principal Environmental Consultant involved in the project. “This required various adjustments to the design and planning in collaboration with several specialists including a dolomite specialist engineer, process engineers and civil engineers.”

The project’s opportunity to sell compressed gas also introduced the need for pipeline infrastructure, triggering additional environmental licensing requirements.

The Sunderland Ridge project is the third initiative of its kind by BEH – its first plant has been operating in Bronkhorstspruit, Gauteng, for almost a decade and has already contributed around 100 GWh to the national grid. Construction of a second plant in Malmesbury, Western Cape, is planned to start later this year with approval to produce 9,8 MW.