Adapting waste-to-energy interventions for seasonal demand

Elgin Fruit Juice installed an anaerobic digester to convert organic waste into electricity and thermal energy, achieving 30-40% operational energy savings. To address low energy demand during the off-crop season (July-December) and the lack of a grid-feed-in license, the company formed Elgin Bio-digestion to use excess biogas as a coal replacement in boilers, saving R2.2 million annually and reducing carbon emissions.

• Elgin Fruit Juice utilizes an anaerobic digester to process 30t of wet pomace, 7200t of waste fruit, and 600t of biomass from nearby farms to generate 527 kW of electricity and 650 kW of thermal energy via a combined heat and power (CHP) unit.
• The biogas plant provides operational energy cost savings of 30-40% and reduces landfill waste by 18,250 tonnes per annum, resulting in a carbon footprint reduction of 36,540 tonnes CO2e per year through landfill diversion.
• Due to low energy demand during the off-crop season from July to December and the failure to obtain a generating license for grid feed-in, the company established Elgin Bio-digestion to use excess biogas as a coal fuel replacement.
• Using biogas as a coal replacement in boilers generates R2.2 million in annual cost savings and reduces the carbon footprint by approximately 2,600 tonnes CO2e.

APA

Salie, Y. (2020). Adapting waste-to-energy interventions for seasonal demand. GreenCape. https://greencape.co.za/assets/BIOGAS_CASE_STUDY_16_9_20.pdf

Chicago

Salie, Yaseen. Adapting waste-to-energy interventions for seasonal demand. GreenCape, 2020. https://greencape.co.za/assets/BIOGAS_CASE_STUDY_16_9_20.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Salie |first1=Yaseen |title=Adapting waste-to-energy interventions for seasonal demand |publisher=GreenCape |date=2020 |url=https://greencape.co.za/assets/BIOGAS_CASE_STUDY_16_9_20.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{salie2020adapting, author = {Salie, Yaseen}, title = {{Adapting waste-to-energy interventions for seasonal demand}}, institution = {GreenCape}, year = {2020}, url = {https://greencape.co.za/assets/BIOGAS_CASE_STUDY_16_9_20.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }