Eva ten Velden
Meeting Takatso Mofokeng 2
Date: 24-11-2015
Place: Farm of Takatso Mofokeng
Participants:
- Takatso Mofokeng (Project owner)
- Steven Roerink (Team member)
- Yonis le Grand (Team member)
- Job Seuren (Team member)
- Eva ten Velden (Team member)
Duration: 1 hour and 50 minutes. The meeting has been recorded (Folder A, record 2). This is why sometimes there is a time mentioned in between brackets.
At the beginning of the meeting we discussed the final report of the previous group. We were still reading up on this document but Takatso had read it already. The report has, by his point of view, a few gabs. The previous group had only a few biomass suppliers included of all the possible suppliers Takatso had given them. They also didn’t mention why they excluded most of these suppliers. Takatso is interested in the dung instead of manure. Cow dung is wet and cow manure is dry. Although this depends on the freshness of the manure. If we use dung instead of manure, we will have to ad less water. Takatso mentioned the following possible suppliers who have to be double checked:
- Morgan beef
- Kruger feedlot (near prison)
- Mamphe
- Hattingh (Devon)
- Tsele, interested in dung. Wet
- Leandra Abattoir (Kobus Louw)
- Devon Prison (Bosasa)
- Devon Brilers
- Sewage Treatment Installation (DEVON) -> waste which is burned actually. Asked about the clean water -> used in a dam, we can use it.
Furthermore the previous group left out a couple of the boreholes which are available at the farm. At the farm there are five boreholes available. Two of them are in use at this moment, but the other three, especially the measurements of them, are not mentioned in the report.
Besides the lack of mentioning the boreholes, the previous group also didn’t say anything about the location of the biogas plant. This has to be determined. The installation has to stand nearby a transformer, which transformer? Is this possible? What are de consequences? This are some questions which need to be answered. (time: around 19 minutes). Thereby, is nothing mentioned about the site plan of the plant and the safety of the location (in case the plant will be build nearby the farm itself).
Also the needed human resources were not specified enough. One operator is not enough to run the plant and furthermore, there are workers needed who will collect the dung and prepare this with the rest of the feedstock for the digester. The previous group mentioned something about contractors and the workers of the farm now. Only Takatso was not satisfied with this. (time: around 22 minutes) We have to work out human resource. Besides the dung collectors and the operators there are also people needed for management and administration, Industrial workers. Hereby the following questions need to be answered; Are the workers of nowadays enough? and which kind of workers do we need to hire when the plant is up and running?
The lack of mentioning the scrubber and silveroxide (only the needed flow rate of the scrubber is mentioned) (time: around 23 minutes) and the lack of a better definition of the gas storage (time: before 30 minutes) are other examples by which Takatso was not satisfied enough. He finds that the gas storage should be in a tank beside the digester instead of only on top of the digester. If we can prove that only the gas storage on top of the digester will be enough storage room, than Takatso will be okay with it. So we need to do some research about this subject.
Another left out is the relevance of policies, recommendation is needed. Takatso got the feeling he had provided the previous group with information and this information was coming back thru the report. The previous group told for example all about legislation instead of giving advice about policies. (time: around 30 minutes)
We have to contact Botala as soon as possible and ask for a guided tour. The owner Perd Stain has experience with biogas and his plant is a great example for us. We especially have to ask about the heating of the digester. In the report there is a minimum heat mentioned but according from Takatso, Perd Stain had said something about heating and the fact that it is not necessary. We have to check this to be sure.
After the run thru of the final report Takatso asked our group the following tree questions (time: around 35 minutes):
- What happens with technical errors in the report? à Technical supervisor should correct them. (Bart Frederiks was the technical supervisor of the previous group, but he doesn’t want to be ours. Therefore we need to search for a new supervisor. We have send a mail to Henry Spanjers, but we still have to get a reply.)
- What are the arrangements with the second team about the missing points in the report or the technical errors. à Our group is the follow up group of the team who wrote this final report and, since there is information missing, we have to know where in the project acutely we have to start. For now we agreed to start with the preliminary design and therefore arrange more meetings with possible biomass suppliers. In this way we can conclude how much biomass we are able to get and use this information for the design. Besides the design we are also still planning to visit universities. Takatso has a preference for the university where he was once a teacher: University of Twane. Only at the moment there is a strike at this university, so we have to wait, but we can contact Martin Myer instead. So in conclusion, we will design a preliminary design with the information of the final report, besides this information we will fill in the gabs left by the previous group if it is necessary for the design (think about feedstock suppliers, boreholes, recommendations, site, safety, human resources, scrubbing etc.) (time: around 43 minutes)
- What are the financial arrangements with the previous and second team? à This question is a follow up question of the above one. It concerns the work of the previous group. They had an agreement with Takatso about the deliverables and the payment they would receive when they finished these deliverables. According to Takatso, and the above run thru of the report, the previous group didn’t finished what they promised they would finish. So the question is should the previous group get payed for something we have to finish? We (the follow up team) agreed that we don’t want to get mixed up in the financial mess of the previous group. So this question is something Takatso and the previous group should deal with.
The high priorities of our group is to do what we were supposed to do. Takatso knows we are not experts in this field so he doesn’t expect a complete design and building plan. He still expects a preliminary design, of at least the digester, generator and scrubber, based on the knowledge of the previous group and their report. We will definitely design this preliminary design and as soon as we will find gabs in the report with are necessary for the design, we will notify Takatso. (time: around 46 minutes) If we don’t have enough time (after all we don’t have that much time left) Takatso had said he can do some visiting to possible suppliers (time: around 57 minutes), but for now this is our task.
Also there has to be done research about abattoir waste as a possible feedstock. Yonis went to the PK abattoir in Devon before and this company is willing to supply biomass. Only there is not enough knowledge about this type of biomass and the consequences for the process and the outcome. We suggested to make a testing institute out of the prototype digester that is already build at the farm. This has to be further discussed with Takatso. For now we know that there are three types of abattoir waste; stomach contents, fat and blood.
The next subject Takatso wants more information, especially scientific arguments, about is the exact place of the digester. Should it be built above of underground? Takatso has spoken with Perd Stain about this and Perd Stain said it was simply too expensive to build a digester underground. Takatso finds this reason not scientific enough and has asked us to find scientific arguments to build the digester underground or above. His argument for building the digester underground was mostly about the fluctuating temperature above ground. Underground there is no possibility for wind or water to mess with the temperature of the digester. This is the reason why his prototype is build 3,5 meter underground. (time: around 1 hour) When we visit Botala next week we will definitely ask more about his reasons to build a digester above ground.
The ARC has also build some digesters. François Cilliers (a friend of Takatso thru the ARC, he left the ARC when the government was not that interested in biogas anymore) has wrote a manual about it, this manual is at the farm and we should read it to get more information. Takatso will arrange a meeting with François Cilliers (time: around 1.12 hour). When we have a meeting with François Cilliers we will also ask him the question about building above or underground.
The above mentioned strike at the university is the reason why we cannot contact the university of Twane at this moment. Takatso has said in an earlier meeting that he will contact his colleague at the university of Twane to come to the farm. We still have to prepare the interview for this visit but because of the strike we will prepare this later. Therefore we suggested to contact Martin Myer, so we can get in contact with another university; UniSA. Takatso agrees and has said that he will contact Martin Myer and we will also try to reach him. (time: around 1.15 hour)
The last subject of our meeting was about the event which will take place at the farm of Takatso. ARC has said that they will contact all the farmers and organise the event. We only have to prepare some presentations about biogas. Still there is some uncertainty about this event. This season it has barely rained and this is why the farmers will not have that much time to visit the event. If the event takes place it will be take place in the end of January. We hope we will be still at the farm by then. During our meeting Takatso has suggested some information we could tell the farmers about biogas (time: around 1.40 hour);
- First of all we have to tell something about the climate change what is happening nowadays. We have to tell why this change is happening and the consequences of it. Biogas is a possible solution to help to stop this climate change.
- Furthermore, we will tell something about the benefits of biogas;
o Makes the environment clean à waste management
o Produces gas or (if enough feedstock) electricity à power source & green energy
o Produces fertilizer
- We can also tell something about the energy problem in South Africa. ESKOM doesn’t have enough sources to provide the needed energy. There are for example power cuts. (Takatso told us a story about Nigel; “ESKOM is ‘killing’ small farmers”)
o A solution for this lack of energy could be solar or wind energy. The problem of these kinds of energy is the fact that you have to depend on the sun or wind. This is another benefit of biogas. This kind of energy is baseload, it can constantly deliver electricity and the number of provided electricity can fluctuate on the demand of the costomer.
- At last we can tell something about the microbiology of a biogas plant. How can you make gas out of dung? This has to be explained very simple. We have to compare this for example with a human being. When you eat beans… you have to fart.
- Everything that we will tell the farmers has to be explained with pictures etc. Takatso has provide us with some memory sticks which contains a movie about the digester of ARC and a slideshow of the building process of the prototype at the farm.
The next day (25-11-2015) Takatso came by the farm again and showed us the locations of the 5 boreholes and the electricity transformer.