Tanzania: Dar Plans Power From Sisal Waste

East African Business Week (Kampala)

1 October 2007
Posted to the web 1 October 2007

Mohamed Said
Tanga

Tanzania has registered considerable success in testing the use of sisal waste in generating electricity.

The ongoing pilot project titled "Cleaner Integral Utilisation of Sisal Waste for Bio-gas and Bio-fertilizers" show that the bio-gas which comes from the sisal residue can indeed produce high-voltage electricity.

A bio-gas plant at the Hale Sisal Estate in the Korogwe District in Tanga region has been able to yield 150 kilowatts of electricity which are enough to power a nearby hammer mill for making pulp.

Ms. Mayra Sanchez Osuna, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)'s Project Manager said the project has established the viability of using sisal waste to produce the biogas, electricity and bio-fertilizer.

She said the Hale activity "is the first demonstration project for the total utilization of this commodity in an economically feasible and friendly way adding that the results will be transferred to other interested sisal growing nations to replicate.

Observers say the findings will check the power divide existing between the rural and urban communities. Osuna said that the positive effect was leading to possibility of generating electricity in rural areas from locally available renewable sources.

More than half of the world population has no access to electricity and with the prices of fuel rising relentlessly the search for alternative energy becomes crucial.

Until recently only 2% of the sisal plant was considered to be useful, however recent researches show that the remaining 98 per cent have potential economic value including the generation of electricity from sisal waste which has been discarded in the past.

The Hale project is part of the efforts to find for alternative applications of sisal to counter the present slump in sisal fibre sell after the introduction of synthetic fibres in the international markets.

Patricia Scott, UNIDO representative in Tanzania said it became clear that the future of the sisal industry depend on the diversification of its uses.

Counting the advantages of sisal bio-gas utilization she said it adds value to the sisal waste, it solves environment problems related to the disposal of the waste, it generates energy to be used in the sisal industry, it produces a valuable biological fertilizer, and it reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

The Project cost was estimated at US$ 1,500,812. Financiers include the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), UNIDO and the Tanzanian Government and the privately owned Katani Limited.

Annual global production of sisal and henequen in 1970 was about 800,000 tones. Both Kenya and Tanzania accounted for over 30 percent of the total.

In 2006, global production was estimated at about 268,000 tones out of which only 22% was produced by Kenya and Tanzania.

The downtrend in sisal production has been attributed to poor marketing arrangements, barriers to free trade, non utilization of the total sisal plant and inadequate research and development.

Other sisal growing nations are China, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Mozambique.