Waste to Energy as a Sustainable Solution for Mali

Main Objectives of the Project:

• To design, develop and implement a solution to treat the organic fraction of the waste from several municipalities in Mali. 
• Design and develop a photovoltaic (PV) system that will meet the energy demand for equipment in the waste-sorting facility in Mountouguola, Mali. 
• Developing an innovative roadmap for a national waste development scheme by creating and  validating training modules in the areas of sanitation and solar energy. 

Grants: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH 

Funding period: June 2021 – September 2023 

Project: 

SRH Berlin University of applied sciences and specially the Berlin School of Technology educates international students in renewable energies, water- and waste management. In the framework of a knowledge transfer project in Mali, we are responsible for implementing the technical cooperation agreed by our client Gesselschaft fur International Zussamenarbeit (GIZ). Technical cooperation consists primarily of project coordination, system design and development, training supervision, course content validation, provision of equipment and materials and the preparation and collation of final studies and reports. Utilizing the SRH CORE (Competence Oriented Research and Education) concept of learning, we offer tailor-made learning concepts to students and training participants in our external projects. This is carried out while taking into account international standards.  

As part of the project, SRH is working with several partners to achieve the following goals: 

- a locally fabricable system that can easily be set-up to produce biogas and organic fertilizer from different fermentable organic waste, the system is completely manual and can be easily controlled and monitored without any necessity for special skilled work force or any maintenance intensive complex mechanisms. This would inspire hands on experience and improve the competence of the people. Additionally, it will serve as a test ground to investigate the biogas and mineral extraction potential of different bio-waste mixtures while providing a platform to control the parameters that affects the yield. The products from this system would be mainly biogas and compost. 

- a photovoltaic (PV) system that would meet the energy demand for equipment in the waste-sorting facility. Power from the PV system would be used to drive the sorting and size reduction units including powering the material transport unit (sorting tables, pumps, conveyors, etc.). The PV power would cover both the day-time energy demand and the night-time energy demand. 

- a novel state of the art dry fermentation unit for biogas and compost production. This would accept and treat all types of fermentable organic wastes in its raw form. The process parameters for this system are semi-automated. Various types of organic waste streams requires different fermentation conditions, hence the technology includes controllable parameters like temperature, quantity of percolate flow, substrate material flow within the reactors, microbial-rich percolate liquid extraction. 

- training modules and its validation, and training of trainers for both the operation of the waste systems built and to support the existing training structures on the sustainability of the approach for a high reproducibility of knowledge transfer. This would create a multiplier effect as the institute would be better placed to deliver better competence oriented training to a wider audience.