Bagasse energy cogeneration potential in the South African sugar industry

The paper explores the potential energy cogeneration effect of bagasse in the South African sugar industry. At the present moment very few sugar mills are exporting surplus electricity generated to the national grid. There is a need to take advantage of the abundant bagasse that is produced from the sugar industry through more efficient combustion processes to co-generate process steam and electricity for the supply to the grid. The industry also needs to take advantage of available technologies to efficiently generate electricity from bagasse using high pressure steam boilers. Using the current available technology the industry has a potential to produce about 3000 GWh per year and this is about 1.3% of the current generating capacity in South Africa. This translates to a generating capacity of 343 MW. Application of Integrated gasification combined cycle can result in 11000 GWh and this is about 5% of the current generating capacity at Eskom. In terms of MW this is equivalent to a generating capacity of 1255 MW. The other benefit derived from cogeneration is the1.619 kilo tonnes reduction in the use of coal which also translates to 2.84Mt of carbon dioxide. The cogeneration project will also improve the competitiveness of the sugar industry provided a viable price per KWh of electricity is agreed upon

Life cycle inventory of electricity cogeneration from bagasse in the South African sugar industry

The South African sugar industry has a potential for cogeneration of steam and electricity using bagasse. The sugar industry has the potential to generate about 960 MW per year from bagasse based on the average of 20 million tons of sugar cane crushed per year. Renewable energy sources like bagasse are generally regarded as cleaner energy sources as opposed to coal-derived energy

Rail safety regulatory environment : a South African experience

Post-1994, the railway environment in South Africa could best be described as monopolistic competition. The former South African Railways & Harbours, which later became Transnet Freight Rail, was and still is the only role player. Transnet was able develop regulations and standards to manage their operations. The new dispensation brought with it many changes; chief amongst which was the introduction of the transport agencies that function at arms-length to promote safety in and across all transport modes. The Railway Safety Regulator was established in 2002, has been in operation since 2005, promoting, and regulating safety in the railway environment. The purpose of this paper is to look at the key elements of the railway safety regulatory regime in South Africa and compare it to other local and international regulators. There a number of differences between the regulations of railway safety in South Africa when compared to other countries. However, it is important to consider South African conditions and environment before adopting some of the best practices.Paper presented at the 34th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 6-9 July 2015 "Working Together to Deliver - Sakha Sonke", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.The Minister of Transport, South AfricaTransportation Research Board of the US

Investigating the environmental costs of deteriorating road conditions in South Africa

Paper presented at the 33rd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 7-10 July 2014 "Leading Transport into the Future", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.The potential environmental impacts of deteriorating road conditions on logistics systems and the national economy have not received significant attention. This study gives an estimate of the potential environmental costs of deteriorating road network conditions in South Africa. This paper is an extension of past studies dealing with the potential effects of deteriorating road conditions in South Africa and focuses on comparing the environmental impacts of freight transportation on the national and provincial road networks. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines for estimating carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles was used to determine the potential environmental costs. Preliminary calculations show increased environmental costs on the provincial road network when used for freight transportation as compared to the national road network. This is because the national road network is in a much better condition compared to the provincial road network. Finally, recommendations for future enhancements of the methodology to quantify the environmental impacts of deteriorating road conditions are given.This paper was transferred from the original CD ROM created for this conference. The material was published using Adobe Acrobat 10.1.0 Technology. The original CD ROM was produced by CE Projects cc. Postal Address: PO Box 560 Irene 0062 South Africa. Tel.: +27 12 667 2074 Fax: +27 12 667 2766 E-mail: [email protected]

LCA applied to perennial cropping systems: a review focused on the farm stage

International audienc

The ASOS Surgical Risk Calculator: development and validation of a tool for identifying African surgical patients at risk of severe postoperative complications

Background: The African Surgical Outcomes Study (ASOS) showed that surgical patients in Africa have a mortality twice the global average. Existing risk assessment tools are not valid for use in this population because the pattern of risk for poor outcomes differs from high-income countries. The objective of this study was to derive and validate a simple, preoperative risk stratification tool to identify African surgical patients at risk for in-hospital postoperative mortality and severe complications. Methods: ASOS was a 7-day prospective cohort study of adult patients undergoing surgery in Africa. The ASOS Surgical Risk Calculator was constructed with a multivariable logistic regression model for the outcome of in-hospital mortality and severe postoperative complications. The following preoperative risk factors were entered into the model; age, sex, smoking status, ASA physical status, preoperative chronic comorbid conditions, indication for surgery, urgency, severity, and type of surgery. Results: The model was derived from 8799 patients from 168 African hospitals. The composite outcome of severe postoperative complications and death occurred in 423/8799 (4.8%) patients. The ASOS Surgical Risk Calculator includes the following risk factors: age, ASA physical status, indication for surgery, urgency, severity, and type of surgery. The model showed good discrimination with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.805 and good calibration with c-statistic corrected for optimism of 0.784. Conclusions: This simple preoperative risk calculator could be used to identify high-risk surgical patients in African hospitals and facilitate increased postoperative surveillance. © 2018 British Journal of Anaesthesia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Medical Research Council of South Africa gran