Sasol and General Electric (GE: NYSE)'s GE Power & Water division have together developed new water technology that will clean waste water, while also providing biogas as a by-product for power generation. This new technology, known as Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor Technology (AnMBR), will be further developed at a new demonstration plant at Sasol's R&D Campus at its Sasol One Site in Sasolburg.
"This is another exciting technological innovation that will further entrench our position as a world-leader in gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology and synthetic fuels production. While sophisticated water treatment technologies are already employed at Sasol's major operations, this particular development maximises the efficiencies of our GTL plant design and operations," said Ernst Obersholster, Sasol Group Executive for International Energy, New Business Development and Technology.
"GE is excited to be partnering with Sasol on this initiative that further outlines our commitment to supporting the sustainable development of South Africa with advanced infrastructure technologies, services and solutions. This partnership demonstrates what the private sector can achieve by working together for the benefit of growing the economy and making the economy competitive," said Tim Schweikert President and CEO for GE South Africa.
AnMBR involves anaerobic micro-organisms that are able to live in environments devoid of oxygen, such as sediment layers on floors of lakes, dams and the ocean. These organisms are almost ubiquitous – found in the human digestive system, under the earth surface, deserts and mountain peaks, to name a few.
Sasol currently uses aerobic microbes to treat GTL and CTL effluents.
One of the by-products from the Fischer-Tropsch process is an effluent stream rich in organic acids and alcohols. Traditional (aerobic) treatment technologies treat this effluent by converting the organics to carbon dioxide. The benefit of the AnMBR is that the micro-organisms convert these organics into a methane rich bio-gas which can then be used for power generation. This then results in an overall efficiency improvement in the GTL process. By converting the effluents to a valuable product (power) there is a resulting improvement in the GTL value proposition. Another benefit of the AnMBR is that it produces almost 80% less waste biosolids than the previous generation process.
The treatment of GTL derived effluents is complex and challenging. Sasol pioneered water treatment in ORYX GTL in Qatar, where effluents are recycled for use as irrigation water in the city of Ras Laffan.
Sasol's second generation offering, which is currently being designed for the US GTL facility, is the aerobic Membrane Bioreactor (MBR). The AnMBR helps maintain Sasol's leadership position in this field by converting wastes into value-adding products.
Micro-organisms break down complex organics, such as proteins and carbohydrates through a process called hydrolysis, to simpler building blocks, such as sugars that provide food to the organisms. The waste produced is bio-gas, which can be used as feedstock to generate power.
"The organics in waste water generated from our operations have proven to be the ideal food, or substrate, for Anaerobic micro-organisms," said Thulani Dlamini, Manager Research and Development at Sasol Technology. "We will now continue to explore and develop this technology with the potential for commercial application to our new GTL facilities."
Sasol has been developing the technology for a number of years with promising results. The partnership with GE is aimed at leveraging GE's ecomagination qualified ZeeWeed 500 membrane and decades of membrane bioreactor experience and Sasol's expertise in biological treatment of FT derived effluents."The new AnMBR is one of the many Solutions, that can be developed in the Petrochemical and Refining environment to benefit all other industries" says Daniele Scenarelli, GE Account Executive for Sasol, "This strategic partnership, which was signed in 2010, symbolizes a new way of doing business between Customers and Suppliers. It is collaborative approach and a mutual commitment to technology development and innovation aimed to accelerate the commercialization of this new technology". "The combination of Anaerobic Digestion and ZeeWeed MBR provides customers with the opportunity to minimize the energy required to treat their waste water and re-use it within their facility" said Jeff Cumin, Product Manager at GE Power & Water. "Our goal is to help customers look for opportunities to recover valuable resources which historically have been costly waste products."
Bench scale test work has been on-going for the past year with promising results and with the construction of a demonstration plant at Sasol's R&D facilities with the potential for commercialisation.
It is anticipated that the technology will be commercially ready early in 2015. Sasol will have exclusive rights to apply this technology to FT based plants whilst GE will have the right to market the technology for other industrial uses.
Issued by:
Alex Anderson, Group Media Manager
Direct telephone +27 (11) 441 3295; Mobile +27 (0) 71 600 9605;
alex.anderson@sasol.com
Jacqui O'Sullivan, GM: Group Communication
Direct telephone +27 (11) 441 3252; Mobile +27 (0) 82 883 9697;
jacqui.osullivan@sasol.com
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About Sasol:
Committed to excellence in all we do, Sasol is an international integrated energy and chemical company that leverages the talent and expertise of our more than 34 000 people working in 38 countries. We develop and commercialise technologies, and build and operate world-scale facilities to produce a range of product streams, including liquid fuels, chemicals and electricity.
While remaining committed to our home-base in South Africa, Sasol continues to expand internationally based on a unique value proposition.
About GE Power & Water GE Power & Water provides customers with a broad array of power generation, energy delivery and water process technologies to solve their challenges locally. Power & Water works in all areas of the energy industry including renewable resources such as wind and solar; biogas and alternative fuels; and coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy. The business also develops advanced technologies to help solve the world's most complex challenges related to water availability and quality. Power & Water's six business units include Distributed Power, Nuclear Energy, Power Generation Products, Power Generation Services, Renewable Energy and Water & Process Technologies. Headquartered in Schenectady, N.Y., Power & Water is GE's largest industrial business.
About GE:
GE is an advanced technology, services and capital company with the scale, resources and expertise to take on the world's toughest challenges. Dedicated to innovation in the areas of energy, health, transportation and infrastructure, GE is committed to leadership, partnership and human progress.
GE has more than 300 000 employees globally, of which over 1 500 are in Sub-Saharan Africa. GE is committed to growing its Africa leadership base by investing in young leaders.
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