South Africa - Business creation project

Décrivez votre projet en quelques mots

Our offering is an inexpensive alternative to recover, store, and distribute industrial waste heat energy for upcycling into mechanical, and electrical energy to help displace electricity demand for industrial sized stakeholders.

01.01 Décrivez votre projet en détail

Our offering is a waste heat management system for industrial SMME’s, and large enterprises. We take advantage of cryogenics engineering techniques to store energy, recover waste heat, and create a heat sink for various industrial processes. The advantages include is peak shaving, and load shifting applications. Our variation is tailored to improve the energy efficiency of industrial compressed air systems, data centre cooling, heavy duty industry as a whole, and aid the transition to electric vehicles to be more practical, while adhering to the strict carbon reduction targets. Our variant exploits the solar heat that is stored in the air, ground, or water bodies of an environment, and also industrial waste heat to reduce the need for it to be disposed of. This will increase the industrial energy supply while decreasing the electricity it demands and the disadvantages attached to it, i.e. water consumption, air and water pollution, increasing cost, etc.

01.02 Quel est le problème principal que vous essayez de résoudre ?

We explore the energy usage in the South African industrial sector from mining to manufacturing to the food and beverage industry, etc. We found that about 10 to 30 per cent of these industries’ electrical power supply is used to compress air. In general, only about 4 to 5 per cent of all the energy used to compress air will be able to do any useful work. 80 to 90 per cent will be lost as heat, and the rest will be lost in leaks. This is how we spend 6% of our entire annual electricity supply in South Africa. Data centres will account for about 2% of all the electricity consumed in the world by 2025. About 50% of all the power used in data centres will power the servers, with 98% of this power converted to heat. The remaining 50% is then spent on cooling technologies to remove this heat and discard it. There is therefore a need to recover/recycle waste heat, and create a heat sink for these utilities in order to help them adhere to the strict international carbon reduction targets.

01.03 Dites-nous quels sont les principaux avantages et/ou bénéfices de l'utilisation du produit/service que vous souhaitez fournir par votre projet (au moins 3).

Benefits include: 1. Lower dependence on grid tied electricity means less vulnerability to increasing energy costs and help balance the electricity grid. 2. Will help exploit the waste energy from various industrial processes to reduce the need for industrial cooling and associated costs. 3. Our System can use about 10 times less energy, but up to 30 times cut in costs if we account for load shifting compared to existing systems, making goals to comply with ISO 14001 for Environmental Management Systems, ISO 50001 for Energy Management Systems, and ISO 11011 for Compressed Air Energy Efficiency to become more attainable. 4. We are using mature technologies, and existing knowledge base, but redeploying them in new and fast growing markets like energy recovery/efficiency for industrial compressed air systems. This will provide a shorter validation period, is quicker to market, with a lower technology risk to the customer and new commercial opportunities to the existing supply chain.

01.04 Veuillez décrire précisément à qui s'adressera le produit/service de votre projet. Quels sont les bénéficiaires visés ?

Industry pays to generate waste heat, and then pay again to remove this heat by powering cooling systems/chillers, while in other parts of the factory, they pay yet again to generate heat/cold for other applications. We see our customers fall into 3 categories: First, the really intensive energy users who put a lot of time and effort into understanding their energy cost. Businesses who are aspirational, who want to reduce energy use and go out of their way to identify the sources of advice. Second category is businesses who want to explore other forms of energy to compensate for electricity shortages, but can’t use architecturally imposing options like solar panels and related components. Lastly, the great majority of businesses where energy is quite a small proportion of their costs, would like to reduce those costs, but the amount of time they are prepared to spend on that is very limited. These customers can be found in the mining, data storage, and general industry, etc.

01.05 Quand avez-vous commencé à travailler sur votre projet ?

16/02/2012

01.06 Combien y a-t-il de propriétaires sur votre projet en plus de vous ?

1

01.07 Parmi les autres propriétaires, combien sont des femmes ?

0

01.08 Veuillez décrire le profil des autres propriétaires de votre projet (compétences, expérience, etc.).

Molefi Isaac Doyi, the founder, completed his National Diploma in Mechanical Engineering at the Central University of Technology (CUT) in Bloemfontein, Free State. He was one of the only 25 South African semifinalist, and one of the only three people from the Free State, selected for the Clean-Tech Competition Innovation Program (GCIP) in 2017. The GCIP is funded by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and hosted by the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA, current sponsor, incubator/accelerator) of South Africa to help create sustainable and environmentally clean jobs. He was again, one of the only 25 South African semifinalist, selected for the South African Breweries (SAB) Kickstart Ignite program, in the year 2018. The SAB Kickstart Ignite program is funded by AB Inbev, and hosted by the SAB in South Africa to help equip the youth with entrepreneurship skills, and possibly fund their own ventures. Both programs teach business skills with innovations.

01.09 Si vous avez un site web, une page sur les médias sociaux (Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin...) ou une application, veuillez fournir le(s) lien(s) ici :

01.10 Quel est le secteur d'activité qui décrit le mieux votre projet ?

a) Énergie (équipements, services, énergie durable et fossiles)

02.01.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Pas de pauvreté'

7 - Tout à fait d'accord

02.01.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

Water is crucial to our gross national product and so is energy. It is estimated that a 10 % cut in electricity supply would result in the gross domestic product (GDP) falling by 0.3 %. According to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA), a 60 % electricity price increase could result in a 2.1 % consumer price index increase. The price increase required if only mining and smelting were rationed is 57%, but the consequent fall in GDP would be 0.9 %. It is estimated that around 250 000 jobs will be lost in South Africa due to an electricity shortage and a 1.5 % drop in low-skilled employment will be incurred. High skilled workers will remain employed, but with a reduction in wages. This situation is even worse for a developing country such as South Africa, where the demand for energy is very high and water scarcity is already an issue as discussed in the previous section. Improved energy and water security will improve and help grow the economy and fight poverty.

02.02.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Faim Zéro'

7 - Tout à fait d'accord

02.02.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

Minimise the impact of water and energy collisions. Electricity is becoming more expensive and harmful to the world around us. South African grid supplied electricity is mostly produced from coal fired power plants. Before it even gets to the end user, almost two thirds is lost in production and transmission. The uses of water and energy are connected. Water is needed for the mining and processing of coal, our primary energy source, and energy is used for the processing, recycling, and the distribution of water. Water is crucial to our gross national product and so is energy, if we lose one we lose the other, and growth will remain stunted. We promote water and energy conservation by the cohesion of energy efficiency, and cooling systems redesign, with industrial cooling water recycling. Improved availability of energy and water will boost the SMME’s and even large enterprises that are harmed by our water and electricity shortages, therefore stimulating the rate of job creation.

02.03.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Bonne Santé et Bien Être'

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02.03.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

With as much as 94% of our electricity coming from coal with a CO2 factor of 0.99 kg/kWh, the South African energy sector is a heavy polluter of the environment. Another problem of air pollution is SO2 (sulphur dioxide), which when mixed with water forms H2SO4 (sulphuric acid), also known as acid rain. The mining of coal requires water and energy, leaving our energy supply compromised and our water supplies chemically and thermally polluted. Our energy sector is siphoning up the water that could be allocated to agriculture(food production) and residential use. As much as 98% of South Africa’s water is already allocated to feed the various sectors of the South Africa economy excluding the new Kusile and Medupi power plants, so then one would ask; where will the water that will feed these two power plants come from? Introducing innovative energy efficiency projects such as this one will greatly improve this situation without a compromise on our energy and water supplies.

02.04.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Éducaiton de Qualité'

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02.04.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

The current South African engineering syllabus does not cover cryogenic engineering. We hope to draw attention to this gap so that the relevant government body can recognize the need, and design a syllabus with proper accreditation for this field.

02.05.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Égalité entre les Sexes'

6

02.05.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

All genders are welcome to participate in the project. Although we are at the prototyping stage currently, we are currently working with stakeholders (Technology Innovation Agency of South Africa, the South African industrial sector as a whole, and South African universities) that has a no tolerance policy to any form of discrimination, solving a problem for stakeholders that emphasise gender equality.

02.06.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Eau Propre et Assainissement'

7 - Tout à fait d'accord

02.06.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

The South African industrial sector spends almost R14billion worth of electricity per year to make compressed air. This has a 140Mt of Carbon dioxide, and a 194 billion litres of water footprint per year. Saving this could suspend 2.4 stages of load shedding for the busiest 16 hours of the day for 1 year, and save over 6000 litres of water per second for 1 year. Another study found that data centres will take up 2% of the world’s electricity by 2025. Assuming an average of 2% annual electricity consumption for data centres in South Africa as well, this would add 0,8 stages of load shedding for 16 hours/day, for 1 year, diverting just over 2000 litres/second of water per year from other sectors of demand to power generation to make up for this demand. ( Load shedding is an energy utility's method of reducing demand on the energy generation system by temporarily switching off the distribution of energy to certain geographical areas.)

02.07.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Énergie Propre et Abordable'

7 - Tout à fait d'accord

02.07.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

We take advantage of cryogenics engineering techniques to store energy, recover waste heat, and create a heat sink for various industrial processes. Our offering exploits the solar heat that is stored in the air, ground, or water bodies of an environment, and also industrial waste heat to reduce the need for it to be discarded. This will increase the industrial energy supply while decreasing the electricity it demands along with the disadvantages attached to it, i.e. water consumption, air pollution, increasing cost. The advantages include is energy efficiency, and load shifting applications to aid in the production of compressed air, data centre cooling, heavy duty industry as a whole with waste heat recovery, and help the transition to electric vehicles to be more practical, while adhering to the strict carbon reduction targets.

02.08.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Travail Décent et Croissance Économique'

5

02.08.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

I have worked for a quarrying company called the Danoher Group, which I left in 2021 to focus on this project on a full time basis. I was deployed at a site that generated their own electricity to crush and screen their construction aggregates to various grades throughout their plant. They have 3 diesel generator sets, with an electrical output of 400 kW each. For this reason, I have experience with a 1,2 MW electric power plant, and based on this I estimate that a single technician can look after a 2 MW power plant based on size alone. We will therefore need 2400 technicians to look after a 14 Terra-Watt hours of compressed air load. But we would have to recruit, train, control, and retain 2400 people and this would take too long. The companies that helped me build my prototype can help us extend our labour base. If we create more demand for their labour, then they’ll respond by recruiting so we won’t have to provide for the entire labour demand for this project by ourselves.

02.09.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Industrie, Innovaiton et Infrastructure'

6

02.09.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

We are using mature technologies, but redeploying them in new and fast growing markets like energy recovery/efficiency for data centres and industrial compressed air systems. This will provide a shorter validation period, is quicker to market, with a lower technology risk to the customer and new commercial opportunities to the existing supply chain. South Africa already has access to established processes from the turbo-machinery, power generation, and industrial gas sectors that we can draw from. Cryogenic liquid production, its distribution infrastructure, and its equipment supply chain are already mature and in place. All data acquisition and processing components for real time performance surveillance already exist, with real time manual and automatic/remote response capabilities that can help displace manual labour in order to scale more efficiently. This will help close the cryogenics engineering skills gap in South Africa.

02.10.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Réduction des Inégalités'

5

02.10.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

We want to improve access to clean water, energy/electricity, and job/economic opportunities for all. Energy efficiency for industrial stakeholders is a low hanging fruit to address these inequalities because that where the bulk of water and about 59% of South Africa's electricity demand comes from. With proper execution, our technology has the capability to reduce the cost of harnessing and exploiting South Africa’s extraordinary solar energy resource, and help to conserve our critically scarce water resource, thereby helping to boost small, medium, micro, and even large enterprises that are harmed by our country’s dramatically increasing energy costs, allowing new and existing enterprises to thrive, thereby stimulating the rate of very much needed job creation.

02.11.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Villes et Communautés Durables'

4

02.11.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

End use energy efficiency is very important, especially since one unit saved at the point of use means three units of primary energy not consumed. Energy spending by companies could climb to 30% by 2020. The urgency of CO2 emissions reduction cannot be overemphasised especially when 94% of the electricity in South Africa is from coal. Energy efficiency is the fastest and most effective way to reduce CO2 emissions without hindering industrial productivity. By 2030, energy efficiency will reduce more CO2 than wind, solar, and other alternative energy generation methods combined. With proper execution, our technology can reduce the cost of harnessing South Africa’s extraordinary solar energy resource, and help to conserve our scarce water resource, thereby helping to boost enterprises that are harmed by our country’s dramatically increasing energy costs and worsening water scarcities.

02.12.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Consommation et Production Responsable'

7 - Tout à fait d'accord

02.12.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

Less dependence on grid tied electricity means the disadvantages attached to it are minimized. The urgency of CO2 emissions reduction cannot be overemphasized especially when about 90 per cent of the electricity in South Africa is from coal. Energy efficiency is the fastest and most effective way to reduce CO2 emissions without hindering industrial productivity. By 2030, energy efficiency will reduce more CO2 than wind, solar, and other alternative energy generation methods combined. By targeting data centres and air compressors we could reduce up to 12% of South Africa’s total annual electricity demand.

02.13.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Luttle contre les Changements Climatiques'

7 - Tout à fait d'accord

02.13.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

The South African industrial sector spends almost USD 760 million worth of electricity per year to make compressed air. About 94 % of this energy becomes waste heat. Heat that they first pay to generate, then pay again to remove with cooling systems. While they pay yet again to generate heat and cold for other application processes. This waste heat has a 140Mt of Carbon dioxide, and a 194 billion litres of water annual footprint. The urgency of CO2 emissions reduction cannot be overemphasized especially when about 90 per cent of the electricity in South Africa is from coal. Energy efficiency is the fastest and most effective way to reduce CO2 emissions without hindering industrial productivity. By 2030, energy efficiency will reduce more CO2 than wind, solar, and other alternative energy generation methods combined. By targeting data centres and air compressors we could reduce up to 8% of South Africa’s electricity demand.

02.14.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Vie Sous-Marine'

7 - Tout à fait d'accord

02.14.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

Thermal pollution is the degradation of water quality by any process that changes ambient water temperature of a river, lake, or ocean environment. A common cause of thermal pollution is the use of water as a coolant by power plants and industrial manufacturers. When water used as a coolant is returned to the natural environment at a higher temperature, the change in temperature impacts organisms by decreasing oxygen supply, and affecting ecosystem composition. The need for cooling water in the industrial sector is growing faster than we can supply the water it demands. Our water scarcity problem is greatly exacerbated by the amount of waste heat released by our industrial, especially energy sector into our natural water bodies causing harm to the environment, and leading to excessive evaporation. Innovative methods to exploit this wasted energy will reduce the need for it to be discarded, thus economising the energy use, and lessening the impact of thermal pollution.

02.15.01 Mon projetp contribue à l'objectif 'Vie Terrestre'

6

02.15.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

The quality of life on land is harmed currently, by the amount of waste heat that is released by our industrial, especially energy sector into our natural water bodies, causing harm to the environment, and leading to excessive evaporation. Innovative methods to exploit this wasted energy will reduce the need for it to be discarded, thus economising the energy use, and lessening the impact of thermal pollution. Less dependence on electricity means the disadvantages attached to it are minimized. Energy efficiency is the fastest and most effective way to reduce CO2 emissions without hindering industrial productivity. By 2030, energy efficiency will reduce more CO2 than wind, solar, and other alternative energy generation methods combined. Waste heat recovery/recycling will reduce the demand for electricity by industry, which will lead to a reduced need for land for the construction of power plants. This will help protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems.

02.16.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Paix, Justice et Institutions Efficaces'

3

02.16.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

Energy efficiency projects can help reduce competition for natural energy resources, help to conserve our critically scarce water resource, thereby helping to boost small, medium, micro, and even large enterprises that are harmed by our country’s dramatically increasing energy costs, allowing new and existing enterprises to thrive, thereby stimulating the rate of very much needed job creation. Crime and conflict will be reduced as more opportunities for employment, and access to water and electricity is improved. .

02.17.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Parteneriats pour la Réalisation des Objectifs'

5

02.17.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

We are using mature technologies, but redeploying them in new and fast growing markets. This will provide a shorter validation period, is quicker to market, with a lower technology risk to the customer and new commercial opportunities to the existing supply chain. South Africa already has access to established processes from the turbo-machinery, power generation, and industrial gas sectors that we can draw from. Cryogenic liquid production, its distribution infrastructure, and its equipment supply chain are already mature and in place. We want to tweak and evolve our prototype into a minimum viable product for the chemicals, and food and beverages industries based on pilot feedbacks. We want to show that the production line for food-grade energy plant consumables and processes work properly, can deliver products correctly and within standards and codes once real mass production begins, and that our sponsor’s testing stations and inspection processes are adequate and fully functional.

05.01 Il existe un grand nombre de clients qui utilisent déjà un produit/service très similaire à celui que nous envisageons de créer.

3

05.02 Le produit/service que nous voulons créer représente un type de produit/service entièrement nouveau

3

05.03 Le produit/service que nous voulons créer pourrait être décrit comme une nouvelle technologie

4

05.04 Le produit/service que nous voulons créer est une amélioration d'un produit ou d'un service existant

4

05.05 Le produit/service que nous voulons créer pourrait être décrit comme une extension d'une gamme de produits ou de services

5

05.06 Le produit/service que nous voulons créer répond à une demande ou à un besoin qui n'a pas été satisfait par d'autres produits/services.

6

05.07 Le produit/service que nous voulons créer est une nouvelle version d'un ancien produit/service

5

05.08 Justification de mon projet

The supply and demand for heat and cold rarely coincide in terms of time and location. We incorporate techniques from the field of cryogenic engineering to produce a system of nano to mini energy plants that can interface with various industrial processes, to enhance energy efficiencies by waste heat recovery and recycling, with energy/load shifting capabilities that create an energy supply and demand coordination where it did not exist before. A human/machine interface, on a cloud based network will allow us to monitor and control our system remotely and manually, to minimise trips and thus interruptions to customers/clients’ daily operations. Our System can use about 10 times less energy, but up to 30 times cut in costs if we account for load shifting compared to existing systems, making goals to comply with ISO 14001 for Environmental Management Systems, ISO 50001 for Energy Management Systems, and ISO 11011 for Compressed Air Energy Efficiency to become more attainable.

05.09 Qui sont vos principaux potentiels concurrents et qu'est-ce qui vous différencie d'eux ?

Our closest competition is therefore compressed air systems, and industrial chillers. Industry pays to generate waste heat, and then pay again to remove this heat by powering cooling systems/chillers, while in other parts of the factory, the pay yet again to generate heat/cold for other applications. The supply and demand for waste heat and cold rarely coincide in terms of time and space. Our offering will create the required cohesion, in order to exploit the inherent energy recovery opportunities. Value proposition includes: • Cheaper alternative to harnessing solar and waste heat energy. • Lower dependence on grid tied electricity means less vulnerable to increasing energy costs and help balance the electricity grid. • Lower carbon dioxide emissions footprint will help avoid strict environmental regulations. • Help exploit the waste energy from various industrial processes to reduce the need for industrial cooling and associated costs (cooling water and electricity cost).

10.06 Menez-vous des actions au sein de votre communauté pour promouvoir le rôle des femmes entrepreneurs ?

We are pre revenue currently, relying on a government grant to help us develop a prototype. We have no staff, or other entrepreneur stakeholders yet, but female entrepreneurs are more than welcome to work with us.