Armech Africa’s debut project
Armech Africa’s debut project is in fast-growing Accra – a 3,000tpd integrated waste management system that will exclusively receive all of the waste generated daily in Accra and, after extracting valuable recyclable goods, convert the remaining waste to electricity to be sold to the national grid. Armech Africa will build 6 modern transfer stations around Accra for receiving waste from independent upstream collectors. This waste will then be transferred to the Tunnel Bio-Reactor using a containerization transport model based on the logistics designed and built by Armech for Veolia in Sydney, Australia. Armech Africa has signed exclusive MOU’s with each of the area Municipalities in Accra for the waste off-take.
A 25-year Power Purchase Agreement is being negotiated with The Electricity Corporation of Ghana (“ECG”), the national electricity distributor, at an attractive tariff set in USD. The obligations of ECG under the PPA will be insured (under Breach of Contract policy) by MIGA of the World Bank Group. 40% of total project cash flow will come from recycling plastics and metals, the bulk of which will be exported to European and Asian markets. All on-site surveys, waste studies, upfront engineering and design has been completed.
The 1800 Tonne Tunnel Bio-Reactor (Anaerobic Digester)
The patented Tunnel Bio-Reactor is an innovative above-ground, containerised land-fill. Continuous loading of fresh digestate and unloading of spent-Digestate (compost) allows a constant gas mass to be extracted without high tech intervention and without any leakage or leachate. Based on well known Anaerobic Digestion (AD) – a landfill gas-to-energy process with many decades of operating history. Prior to the AD process, the waste is manually sorted with recyclable and unusable waste being extracted in low-technology sorting lines, leaving only organic (food) waste to feed the Bio-reactor. Organic waste comprises 60-66% of the initial waste content in African countries. The Tunnel Bio-Reactor comprises rows of ship-container shells, joined together and stacked on top of each other. The tunnels have sealable doors on each end and rails on the floors onto which bins are filled with macerated organic waste and then rolled, as rolling-stock, into the tunnels. The Tunnels are then sealed, and 100% of the gas is extracted over a 45-day process through a simple methane gas draw-off pipeline, with valves. The gas is fed into GE gas engines and then transmitted to a nearby sub-station for feeding to the national grid. The GE gas conversion process will be operated by Clarke Energy (UK) under a long-term O&M contract. Clarke have 6,000MW of installed gas capacity under operation worldwide.
How it Works
World Class. First Of It’s Kind
Advantages of the Tunnel Bio-Reactor
The advantages of the Tunnel Bio-Reactor stem from it’s simplistic, modular nature:
Rapid build time – a construction time of 12-18 months insures faster return on capital
Environmentally Friendly – all leachate and gas is contained within the sealed tunnels
Efficient – greater electrical efficiency given no gas can escape the Tunnel Bio-Reactor
Cost-Effective – upfront Capex (by waste volume processed) is less than conventional AD due to equivalent higher cost of landfill lining, inefficient filling & capping and costly piping for gas offtake.
Simple to maintain and operate with doors and rollers the only moving parts – ideal for frontier market environments such as Africa.
Long-life – 50 year warranty with an incredibly strong steel structure that cannot wear.
Mobile – can be easily relocated if the land is needed for alternative use.
Politically appealing to Africa politicians – a large employer of local people (>1,000 people), positive environmental and health benefits, conversion of a burden into much needed electricity.
The Bio-reactor will be built, shipped and installed by Armech’s long-term business partner, Singamas – the world’s second largest container manufacturer, listed in HK and a subsidiary of PIL (Shipping).
