Ghana to produce 4MW of electricity from cocoa

Ghana is to produce four megawatts of electricity using cocoa husks and bean shells as a biomass fuel feedstock, the Cocoa Processing Company (CPC) has announced.

It is estimated that it will take 16 months to complete the project.

The managing director of CPC, Nana Agyenim Boateng, shared this news on Diaspora Weekly, a DNT programme that features members of the African diaspora who are making significant contributions to the development of Africa either at home or from abroad.

Nana Agyenim Boateng said, “This 4MW project will have raw materials of cocoa pod husk and cocoa bean shells. The cocoa pod husks for this project account for only the Eastern Region’s cocoa production.

“In addition to this will be the cocoa shells, which form an average of 11% of the cocoa bean. Tthat is what will be added to the cocoa pod husk and used as raw materials to generate the 4MW and all these by-products,” he said.

The project will generate a guaranteed output of 4MW of electricity every 24 hours, a minimum of 12 tonnes of steam per hour, hot water and chiller (cold water including ice cubes), the by-products being fertiliser and charcoal.

Heat-saving

Horus Energia will use a CHP system, commonly referred to as cogeneration or poly-generation, which consists of a gas generator set equipped with a heat recovery system to use the heat that is usually lost.

The technology to be deployed will produce syngas to power generators for the generation of electricity. The heat rejection from the power generators will be channelled to a heat recovery generator to generate additional steam of 3 tonnes per hour.

Captive Energy, as the independent power producer (IPP), will lead the collaboration of both Horus Energia of Poland and GP Energy of Austria to design, construct, install and commission the project as required within 16 months, as prescribed under the 72-month BOT arrangement.

Captive Energy shall also procure acceptable financial instruments of their scope to meet the payment requirements of both Horus Energia and Green Energy.

Bright prospects

Nana Agyenim Boateng said the project will not affect the production levels of their current cocoa products because the actual cocoa beans would not be among the ingredients to be used as a biomass fuel feedstock. 

“The possibilities are exciting when you consider that Ghana produces roughly 800,000 metric tonnes of cocoa,” Nana Agyenim Boateng said.

Ghana and neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire produce 60% of the world’s cocoa. The electricity generation potential of the least-used portions of the cocoa product presents exciting prospects for power generation in both countries.

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