Ethanol Company Limited (EthCo) has embarked on a K5.2 billion project to produce fertiliser and electricity from the liquid waste produced from its manufacturing plant.
EthCo chief executive officer Lusubilo Chakaniza said in an interview yesterday that the ethanol manufacturing process produces a liquid waste, vinasse, at a rate of 12 litres for every litre of ethanol produced.
This means that at full capacity, 218 million litres of effluent would be produced in a yearm she said.
She said: “To mitigate against the risk of environmental degradation, EthCo is implementing an innovative effluent treatment solution that will result in zero liquid discharge from the plant at a cost of K5.2 billion.
“The process will involve bio-digestion, evaporation, condensate treatment and drying and the process would take less than a week.
“Currently, the vinasse is stored in evaporation ponds for drying and the dried sludge is used by farmers around Dwangwa for crop nutrition and soil conditioning because it consists of organic material rich in potassium and also contains nitrogen, phosphorous, zinc and sulphur. However, the drying process is long and takes close to a year.”
Chakaniza said from the biogas produced from this process, the company will generate steam to drive a turbine and produce about two megawatts of electricity, thereby making the factory self-sufficient on electricity.
She said: “The dried material will be processed in a granulation plant to produce granulated potassium rich organic fertiliser that will be bagged in 50 kilogramme bags for commercial purposes. The water recovered from the treatment system will be treated and recycled back to the factory, thereby reducing the water footprint.”
Chakaniza said the project, which delayed due to Covid-19 pandemic, will be commissioned by December 2022.
Association of Environmental Journalists in Malawi president Matthews Malata hailed EthCo for embarking on the project.
He said: “Anything that is introduced to save our environment or indeed promote sustainable utilisation of our natural resources is welcome.
“Malawi should have advanced with such kind of an innovation many years ago but it’s never too late. Greening the economy means bringing such kind of innovations to life.”
EthCo, a subsidiary of conglomerate Press Corporation plc, is Malawi’s sole producer of potable (extra-neutral spirit) alcohol used by the beverage and pharmaceutical industries and also produces anhydrous alcohol (fuel ethanol), and rectified alcohol for industrial applications.
Source: The Nation_25/3/2022_ by MCdonald Chapalapata_Contributor