KOUGA Municipality recently launched its first mobile biochar plant in Humansdorp, creating more than 1 000 direct and indirect jobs, and enhancing water security, while reversing land degradation.
Launched by Hive Energy, the plant, situated on 7.5 hectares of land, adjacent to the municipal landfill site, along Felix Street in Kruisfontein, is set to produce up to 20 tons of sustainable and commercially viable high-grade biochar daily from biomass obtained from alien invasive vegetation (AIV) growing in the area – including black wattle, blue gum and rooikrans.
The harvesting will take place on municipal, as well as private land within a 50km radius of Kruisfontein, while other units will be situated in areas of high AIV infestation, predominantly along the coastal belt.
The biochar will be distributed nationally and internationally.
Kouga Executive Mayor, Horatio Hendricks, said, “The municipality has been working for over a year with Hive Carbon, a South African subsidiary of Hive Energy, on this initiative that will bring meaningful investment and long-term sustainable employment, as well as promoting eco-friendly practices in the region.
“This fits perfectly with our drive to ensure that our local businesses are given a chance to benefit from the investment that Hive is making in the area and that we become the country’s leading bio-economy zone.”
According to Hendricks, harvesting teams sourced by the municipality’s Enterprise Database have already started clearing 70 000m² AIV to set up the Hive Carbon operations and a local contractor has been appointed to initiate the development of the Hive Carbon facility.
“Each unit needs to produce 60 to 100 tons of biomass per day. This would require between eight and 10 teams to harvest this amount of biomass – each team consists of 12 people. There will also be transportation chipping and production teams,” he said.
Brad Ker-Fox, managing director of Hive Carbon, said, “By setting up biochar production operations in the Eastern Cape, we have decisively taken on the immediate challenges of eliminating alien invasive plants, reducing the terrible fires and huge carbon emissions they propagate and re-establishing land for productive agricultural and conservation use.
“The biochar we produce has an exceptionally high carbon value and exceptionally low volatile level that when added to soil ensures the rejuvenation of soil biology, creating better conditions for healthy plant growth.
Biochar is also being increasingly used as an additive to animal feed to substantially reduce methane emission and reduce mortality rates from scours or ingested poisons and we will address this demand too.”
Hive Energy CEO, Giles Redpath, said, “There are more than 50 applications for biochar that all have a highly positive impact in the global drive to reduce the dependency on fossil fuel derived chemicals and fertilisers.
“We are delighted to be at the forefront of this initiative that combines technology and unwanted invasive and destructive natural resources to transform and regenerate ecosystems with carbon rich products.
“Our investment in biochar production will enable sustainable farming practices, as well as transforming several industrial applications to become organic.
“This is critical for battle against global climate change, as are our many solar plants which we are developing globally,” Redpath said.
– Issued by Kouga Municipality
