Enlit Africa 2023 speaker Dimitris Symeonidis, project manager and policy advisor, Afforest for Future, will deliver a talk on PPP opportunities in dark fermentation and energy storage.

He will draw on on Afforest for Future research into regenerative and renewable energy communities to suggest a way to efficiently decentralise the energy grid. This would be done by creating new, novel finance and business models through public and private participation.

Generating waste, and thus searching for ways to valorise that waste by generating energy, is not a uniquely northern problem. The Global South is also searching for ways to enhance energy storage, security and efficiency, says Symeonidis.

“We’re very interested in pursuing that in the Global South because we see that there are a lot of pain points in trade, increasing access to electricity, access to energy, clean energy and access to energy that can enhance also industrialisation and basically create a booming economy that all the countries we believe deserve,” said Dimitris.

What is dark fermentation and how is it used to in energy storage?

Dark fermentation is a process that converts biomass into products for energy and agriculture, one of which is biohydrogen. “The advantage of dark fermentation is that it can actually generate biohydrogen from any kind of biomass.

“It doesn’t require increasing requirements regarding heating; essentially, it’s a simply process. It can also story energy in the form of hydrogen.

“So, what happens is that we have bacteria that can help with substrate and they can convert it into hydrogen on the one hand, and we have bio-products such as bio-stimulants, on the other hand.

Of reference
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“In this way, it stores energy, because what we need at the end of the day with renewables, especially with [the] intermittency, is to actually have [the] energy stored in various forms, including batteries and hydrogen.

“We see that hydrogen is actually the most efficient way to do that because it has much smaller financial requirements in terms of infrastructure.”

Symeonidis points out the hydrogen can then be converted into many energy uses, satisfying demand in heating, cooling and clean cooking. He sees the technological applications as relevant to Africa, firstly because of waste, which is not just a European, or North American problem.

Addressing food and energy insecurity

“We see, for example, food waste with Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia among the top ten countries in terms of food waste. And, these countries have the means to generate a substantial amount of biomass that just goes to waste. So, we can utilise that.

“On, the other hand we have the algae biomass, with Namibia as an example. In Tanzania, seaweed and algae cultivation are already happening. We can use river bodies, such as the river Congo, to use freshwater algae or aquatic plants, which are also abundant.

“We see a lot of communities that suffer from energy insecurity, food insecurity… we can tend to them. It is one of the solutions that can really revolutionise the energy sector on the continent.

Of reference
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He sees scope for smaller communities to also get involved as the biomass projects can range from small to enormous. “This actually makes things exciting because even a small set of villages can create its own set of biohydrogen plants with the help of microfinancing models, and of course with public private participation.”

Symeonides sees a unique opportunity in biomass to address the energy-food nexus. “It’s impossible to achieve this economic growth in a tangible way for citizens through centralised solutions, keeping in mind climate targets.

“The biggest challenge is collaboration between sectors… so this is a unique opportunity to connect the dots, connect the stakeholders and bring this hydrogen energy revolution into Africa.”

Connect with waste-to-energy information at Enlit Africa

Dimitris Symeonides is an energy market analyst for VaasaETT for Africa as well as project manager/policy advisor for Afforest for Future. As policy lead for Young Leaders in Energy and Sustainability Eyrope (YES-Europe) he helps to mobilise youth towards policy and strategy within the energy and sustainability sector.

At Enlit Africa 2023 he will deliver a talk on Biohydrogen from dark fermentation as a solution to small-scale energy storage and management: Assessment of opportunities and challenges on day one on the Renewable Energy and Storage Hub. ESI