MWANZA, Tanzania (Thomson Reuters Foundation) — Green beer may not sound too appealing, but it’s a big hit in Mwanza.
A locally produced “greener” brew not only slakes thirst but is also reducing the carbon footprint of Tanzania’s second largest city.
Tanzania Breweries Ltd. is tapping biomass energy to produce more sustainable beer while cutting its fuel costs.
“We have adopted new technology which has enabled us to use rice husks as fuel for our boilers instead of heavy furnace oil,” said Sunday Kidolezi, manager of the firm’s Mwanza utility in northern Tanzania.
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The husks that are used to generate electricity are considered a waste product by local farmers. Growers tend to leave them piled in huge mounds, burn them outdoors or dump them in the forest, which makes them a source of climate changing carbon emissions.
Kidolezi said more than 60 percent of the Mwanza factory’s electricity now comes from the husks, which it buys from local farmers. Furnace oil accounts for just 10 percent of the energy the company uses with the balance coming from the national grid.
As a result, the brewery has halved carbon emissions at its Mwanza plant to 4,451 tonnes in 2014 from 8,909 tonnes in 2012, while saving $400,000 a year on oil purchases, Kidolezi said.
The company now plans to use rice husks as fuel in its other breweries in Dar es Salaam, Mbeya and Arusha, he added.
Agricultural biomass remains a largely untapped source of electricity in Tanzania, which could significantly cut costs and help solve the problem of an erratic power supply that has crippled the country’s manufacturing sector, experts say.
Tanzania has many renewable energy sources, including wind, solar, biomass, small-scale hydro power, geothermal and tidal energy. The government is trying to promote a range of clean technologies to diversify its sources of energy.
“Agricultural waste is one of the cleanest renewable energy sources that can substantially displace fossil fuel use,” said Julius Ningu, director of environment in the vice-president’s office. “However, it’s yet to be fully utilized.”
The beer industry is a major economic force in Tanzania, responsible for $250 million in government revenue in 2014-15 and providing thousands of jobs.
However, the effects of climate change have made the industry’s future less certain as warmer temperatures, droughts and extreme weather affect the production of corn, which is a critical ingredient in Tanzania’s beer brewing.
The government is supporting the development of drought-resistant corn varieties, but many companies are also trying to cushion their businesses financially by investing in renewable energy and sustainable water use.
Recycling and other conservation measures have allowed Tanzania Breweries to reduce its water use in Mwanza by 40 percent over five years to 1,200 cubic metres a day, said Kidolezi.
The brewery is one of 35 companies in the country’s Lake region that are promoting an environmental management initiative dubbed “resource efficient and cleaner production,” which aims to reduce energy costs and protect the ecosystem of Lake Victoria, which borders Mwanza to the north.
Spiralling production costs have encouraged industries other than brewing to also adopt renewable energy sources to produce electricity.
The Confederation of Tanzania Industries said energy costs account for 20 percent of industrial production, but efficiency initiatives can save manufacturers up to 40 percent of their energy bill.
Major sugar producers in Tanzania already use sugar cane residues called bagasse to provide heat and electricity for their own factories and sometimes sell surplus power to the national electricity supply company, Tanesco.
The sugar factories in Mtibwa, Kilombero and Kagera use more than 455,000 tonnes of bagasse a year to generate more than 64 percent of their energy needs.
The bagasse is burned to generate steam in high pressure boilers, and the steam is converted to electricity, most of which is used for sugar processing.
Katani Ltd., a sisal fibre company in Tanga, has developed a technology to convert sisal plant residues into biogas to generate electricity for its own use and compressed gas for domestic use. Scientists say cooking gas from sisal waste is more efficient and cheaper than charcoal.
The company had previously thrown away 90 percent of sisal waste during its production processes.
