The Kumasi (Ghana) city administration and government has commissioned ICEPS/CTC to implement sustainable solutions needed to be developed for the reuse of the millions of tonnes of waste produced annually, especially from coconut and cocoa shells, which are creating major problems for the country. The Kumasi Hydrogen Economy Program, KSI H2E, is formulated and will be developed in the coming years with experts from NRW, Germany and Europe, especially at the CTC Bonn site and in the UN City of Bonn.ICEPS/CTC Bonn adivse the government of Kumasi

Background/Context

The KSI-H2E program will rely on near-zero renewable biomass sources as feedstock, basically from biomass waste from wood, coconut husks, municipal solid and liquid wastes, agricultural residues.    

Through conversion of biomass feedstock into hydrogen using conventional gasification methods (biomass gasification). A variety of agricultural and forest product residues can be taken as feedstock to produce hydrogen by conventional gasification. Among all the available bio-based hydrogen technologies, gasification coupled with water-gas shift is the most practical process, in which the
biomass is firstly dried to the moisture content of less than 35%. Subsequently, thermal gasification of the solid feedstock is carried out in a gasifier at the temperature ranging from 600 C° to 1000 C°. The gasification of biomass generates useful gas products including H2, CO, CO2  and other elements.

At present, solid biomass contributes approximately 40% of Ghana’s primary energy supply. This energy is consumed mostly in the household sector in the form of charcoal or wood. Industry and service/commercial sectors also use biomass energy. Biomass resources include supply from agricultural residues from maize, sorghum, rice and from agro-based industries such as shea butter, cocoa, rubber, sawmills, and palm oil. In the agriculture and wood processing sectors, waste is normally burnt as a form of disposal, denying the country the huge untapped potential for productive power and energy generation. According to the national energy plan 2006-2020, the 10% increase in renewable energy for electricity is expected to come mainly from solar, small and medium sized hydro plants, wind, biomass and municipal solid wastes.

There are numerous clustered agro and wood processing sites in Ghana generating a large amount of waste. Municipalities also generate large quantities of liquid and solid waste. For example, Kumasi and its suburbs generate up to 1,600 tonnes daily, in addition Kumasi generates substantial amounts of liquid waste per day. This could be a good feedstock for hydrogen production which could be used
for transportation, cooking and electricity generation. Currently, most of these biomass resources are deemed as not having economic value and are regarded as wastes and are therefore left on farms (for agricultural residues) to decompose, whilst others generated within the built-up areas are disposed of by burning constituting fire, environmental and health hazards.

The main barriers hindering the development of the biomass resource into productive end uses are the high start-up costs, limited knowledge and local expertise, for example in utility-scale hydrogen production and the fact that many people regard these sources of biomass as waste. The other challenges are limited characterization of the biomass in both quantities, composition, and sources
and supply risks, the legislative and regulatory frameworks, including standards and codes for their utilization.   For urban waste the other challenge associated with its use is the lack of waste segregation at the source of generation.

Objective
The objective of the program is to transform Kumasi into a model hydrogen economy through a multi-stage and long term biomass gasification (steam reforming) of all biomass wastes generated in the municipality and its environs, and demonstrate the economic viability and better utilization of biomass waste as a resource for clean sustainable power generation and transport fuel, contributing
to the Government of Ghana’s target of reaching at least 10% renewables in the energy mix by 2030, as set out in various national energy policy documents and Ghana’s nationally determined contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement.