Abstract
Energy supply for clean cooking is a priority for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, i.e., propane or butane or a mixture of both) is an economically efficient, cooking energy solution used by over 2.5 billion people worldwide and scaled up in numerous low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Investigation of the technical, policy, economic and physical requirements of producing LPG from renewable feedstocks (bioLPG) finds feasibility at scale in Africa. Biogas and syngas from the circular economic repurposing of municipal solid waste and agricultural waste can be used in two groundbreaking new chemical processes (Cool LPG or Integrated Hydropyrolysis and Hydroconversion (IH2)) to selectively produce bioLPG. Evidence about the nature and scale potential of bioLPG presented in this study justifies further investment in the development of bioLPG as a fuel that can make a major contribution toward enabling an SSA green economy and universal energy access. Techno-economic assessments of five potential projects from Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda illustrate what might be possible. BioLPG technology is in the early days of development, so normal technology piloting and de-risking need to be undertaken. However, fully developed bioLPG production could greatly reduce the public and private sector investment required to significantly increase SSA clean cooking capacity.
Highlights
Modern energy cooking services (MECS), the ability to cook efficiently, cleanly, conveniently, reliably, safely and affordably [1], are regarded as an urgent human development priority
We present (a) Techno-Economic Assessment (TEA) estimates of capital and operating costs for various bioLPG production plant sizes; (b) feedstock cost estimations and (c) the economic/financial modelling and finance sourcing strategies for the five pilot project possibilities in Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda identified by the triage process set forth in Section 2.1 Many of the model input variables are subject to market changes
The results presented in this paper were based on data gathered in mid-2020
Summary
Modern energy cooking services (MECS), the ability to cook efficiently, cleanly, conveniently, reliably, safely and affordably [1], are regarded as an urgent human development priority. A plethora of technology, business model and policy interventions are in early stages of evaluation, but leading global organizations are focusing on two classes of proven clean cooking solutions: electricity and clean fuels in both liquid and gaseous forms (e.g., LPG, bioethanol, biogas) [4,5,6] Of these clean fuel choices, LPG is attracting much focus as a high priority, tenable and financeable solution for the ten years (and perhaps longer) in an effort to achieve Sustainable Energy Goal 7 (SDG7) on universal energy access [1,4,7,8]
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