ERA-SOLMAB

Energy recovery and cleaner groundwater: techno-economic and environmental assessment of municipal solid waste management in the city of Bamako, Mali

The envisaged project’s theme is the projection of synergy of waste-to-energy in Bamako, Mali. It entails the positive interaction of: (i) waste reduction by means of anaerobic digestion and incineration (ii) and energy provision in the form of a secondary fuel (i.e. biogas) or electricity. This is achieved by iii) presenting the impacts of waste on the local water systems, (iv) a determination of the environmental and socio-economic analysis of waste-to-energy scenarios in comparison to the status quo, as well as (v) the installation and operation of a biogas pilot plant.

MAIN FOCUS

Waste-to-energy

Technological waste-to-energy solutions have been developed in all directions and include thermo-chemical and biochemical technologies such as pyrolysis, gasification, incineration or anaerobic digestion. Industrial sized waste incineration and biogas plants represent proven technologies. Incineration units display the most widely used waste-to-energy technology around the world, but they are only sporadically applied in low-income countries. A skillful operation and management of waste holds the potential to reduce the emissions/pollution and increases the efficient energy recovery. In this project the waste to energy recovery routes will be analyzed for a selected site within Bamako municipality using the techno-economic and environmental assessment methods.

ACTIVITIES & EVENTS

Midterm workshop ERA-SOLMAB at ITT

In July 2023, professors and researchers from Mali and the ZEF (Bonn, Germany) visited the installations of ITT for the midterm workshop of the project. Each project partner provided updates of their work, outlining the next steps of the project.