BIOGAS TECHNOLOGY

Established in 1988 Biogas Technology Ltd brings together the resources and expertise to lift the burden of risk, liability and finance faced by landfill site operators, and to help you capitalise on commercial opportunities. Biogas Technology Ltd has been able to provide the infrastructure and engineering support to projects producing in excess of 90MW of renewable energy from landfill gas within the UK and throughout Europe. The company continues to provide a wide range of services and products to help landfill owners and operators meet there site licence and environmental objectives.

While still providing a high level of service to the UK and European Landfill sector Biogas Technology Ltd has continued to increase its global activity through strategic partnerships and ventures in many emerging markets countries as diverse as Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Argentina, China, Ghana and many more. With the recognition of landfill gas methane as a potent contributor to the global green house gas effect and global warming, Biogas Technology Ltd has been able to provide high quality engineering and technical skills required to successfully capture, recover and process landfill gas and create carbon credits which contributes to the world wide efforts to reduce global warming.

Cement Group

Kenya’s Bamburi Cement Group plans to cut its annual carbon dioxide emissions from plants in Kenya and Uganda by 132,000t by reducing the use of fossil fuels in cement-making. Bamburi did not give an exact figure for its annual emissions but managing director Michel Puchercos put it at about 1.5Mt, based on the production of 1.5Mt of cement. The company, which is 60%-owned by Lafarge, plans to reduce its use of fossils fuels such as coal, and substitute it with wood from its own plantations as well as coffee, rice and cashewnut husks. The fuels are used to fire kilns that roast limestone, a key ingredient in cement.

Bernard Osawa, business manager in charge of alternative fuels, said: “In Kenya and Uganda Between now and 2010 we are targeting a redution of 132,000t of CO2. We are looking at three projects. They are in various stages of development.” Osawa said that cumulatively the company had cut its emissions by a total of over 111,000t of CO2 since 2002 at a cost of Euro3.8m and plans to invest another Euro14m euros in the next two to three years. The firm plans to substitute 20% of fossil fuel at its plant in the coastal city of Mombasa, which uses about 300t of coal a day. It also plans to substitute fossil fuel use by 50% in Uganda where it has its Hima Cement subsidiary.

The cement sector is one of the world’s largest producers of greenhouse gases, producing about 5% of global emissions. Cement production creates carbon emissions twice – first from burning coal to heat the limestone raw material, and again as the limestone separates into carbon dioxide and lime.

POLLUTION PREVENTION

It doesn’t take a leap of faith to understand that the best way to reduce toxic emissions is to not make them in the first place. That’s the simple idea behind pollution prevention: the "best" pollution is the one you never create. Putting that into practice has led companies to re-examine their products and processes with an eye to reducing or eliminating toxic ingredients, recycling or reusing chemicals to keep them out of the waste stream, and using a wide range of alternative materials to replace polluting ones.

In most cases, the benefits of preventing pollution are economic as well as environmental. After all, waste and pollution are inefficiencies -- something that a company bought, didn’t sell, and often had to pay to get rid of -- so reducing or eliminating these inefficiencies can have positive paybacks.