Special thank you to Peter Benhur Nyeko, Co-Founder and Director, Mandulis Energy for this interview. Mandulis Energy generates the lowest cost, highest quality electricity that is clean, while delivering carbon removal, and carbon capture. Alongside the energy generation, carbon removal and carbon capture, Mandulis Energy utilizes inputs such as agriculture waste and combine biomass gasification with anaerobic digestion and solar to generate additional revenue streams better finance solutions. They serve residential, commercial and industrial connections under a 20 year license (renewable) or power purchase agreement. (PPA)

NCEC Interview Questions

1. How does Mandulis Energy contribute to removing carbon from the atmosphere?

The Mandulis Energy protype has been built to address the energy access “trilemma” of affordability, reliability and sustainability. They have turned the switch on a fully functional, scalable, and replicable prototype to enable sustainable rural electrification.

The carbon removal process starts with the anaerobic digestion of agricultural waste, which is either wet or dry. The dry waste goes through the biomass gasification channel and is converted to syngas, which is hydrogen and methane, mostly hydrogen, and that generates electricity through a turbine, but the excess hydrogen and methane can be directed towards sustainable fuels. The byproduct of gasification is biochar. At above 1200 degrees Celsius, that biochar is the highest quality, which delivers good, really good permanence to a thousand years.

Wet biomass goes into anaerobic digestion. The main byproduct is a biogas, and we upgrade our biogas, sepertating the carbon dioxide from the biomethane. The biomethane then goes into power generation. The liquid CO2 has a lot of uses and most interestingly is it can basically be locked into concrete. The slurry that is left behind, the digestate, is a very rich organic slurry that when combined with biochar delivers nutrients to the soil.

On the biochar side, it delivers better soil water retention for the soil, so it ends up with this exciting system which delivers on waste management in agricultural areas where both the dry waste (husks, shells, etc) and the wet waste are eliminated. Solar (photoVolatic cells) are added into the mix to ensure that the design will always generate electricity around the clock even when we are doing routine maintanence on the bioenergy systems. Electricity is still being generated so we’ve got solar, batteries and can deliver a reliable source of electricity below the price of natural gas at scale. Farmers who are in farming areas who may be struggling with their waste can earn income from that while delivering low-cost, industrial-quality electricity in rural areas.

With this loop it allows us to deliver electricity below the price of natural gas at scale. It then becomes possible to attract industries that process the produce from these farming areas to the place where the agriculture is actually being produced. Potentially to power electric vehicles for haulage and trucking to create very green and clean systems. The process is affordable, and more importantly, profitable at the same time.

2.     What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced in carbon removal? 

Mandulis Energy started working in the carbon removal space before it became cool and way before anyone was looking at biochar. Mandulis Energy is designing our systems based on biomass gasification of agricultural ways to generate syngas and biochar. They’re really looking at combining the biochar with slurry to make a biofertilizer which is activated. Involving biochar and mixing it with concrete and other uses. They’ve been doing it since 2012.

Until someone else has done it- its very difficult to launch, pioneering innovation is always difficult. The biggest challenge is a lot of financeers are looking for companies who have only been built for a couple of years, so innovating to get funding for a company that has been in place for much longer can be tough financially.

3. Who are the key stakeholders in the carbon removal space?

Scientists, Engineers and Innovators. A mix between investors, purchasers, and producers. Investors can very easily lose out on the possibilities. Complexity is seen as risky- low return or high risk, but if we’re able to educate our investors a lot more to understand where value is, it becomes very interesting. Investments of a few 10’s of millions to returns of billions.

4. Who else is doing work like this in the field?

There are a couple of organizations that Mandulis Energy has come across people doing similar work in one field, but not all combined and not at scale.

5. How are you measuring carbon removal?

Mandulis Energy measures the amount of biochar produced, and the temperature at which the biochar/biowaste is produced in, and methane and hydrogen out. Permanence is tracked through what biochar is used for such as concrete blocks. The amount of biochar mixed with slurry is also measured. The changes in terms of yield is caluculated and wherever there is an engine, always designing for zero emissions, so even when methane and hydrogen blend goes into a gas engine, the exhaust is captured, liquified and locked into concrete.

Verification happens at the point of production and extraction with sensors. There is verification done at deployment with visual sensors and drones, then it is calculated from satellite and ground truthing of randomly selecting acreage.

6. How do groups like the New Carbon Economy Consortium allow you to further your progress? 

New Carbon Economy Consoortium allows interactions with others who are at the cutting edge of their side of the carbon removal movement. Being part of a community makes it a lot easier to prove to our own investors that there are other people doing similar things. It makes it easier to prove to governments that its happening successfully elsewhere. There is a sense of community and it becomes useful.

Aggregation of mind, concentrate it can only lead to a very strong sustainable voice that can help build what we’ll eventually call a new carbon economy lobby that ensues that our approaches as a consortium are not looked upon as wild or weird but looked upon as useful to consider especially where there are opportunites to improve bankability, reduce costs, improve profitability and deliver better quality.

7. How do you work with local communities?

Farmers bring their crops, to extract biomass Mandulis Energy removes waste from their crops- and they take back crops that have been deshelled, (access to dehusking, dethreshing). Farmers receive access to mini-grid as a micro utility to deliver them electricity. The byproducts, biofertilizer, and biochar improve gricultural practices. Contributing farmers also have access to green concrete which incldes the biochar that comes out of the system, quick curing blocks to help with infrastructure. Farmers give the inputs, in return they get value, electricity, fertilizer, increased yields and the concrete blocks.

8. Anything else you’d like to share?

Mandulis Energy is based in London and has a global team. They develop, own and operate renewable energy projects across Africa. They started in Uganda, where they pioneered private sector led deployment of on-grid and off-grid renewable energy infrastructure that go beyond simple carbon offsets to enable carbon removal. There is a Mandulis Energy representative on the ground in Arizona, U.S. that is looking at future expansion as well as the Eurpoean Union, and United Kingdom. Project Development is currently happening in South Africa, Botswana, Zambia Cambodia, and Nigeria. Currently testing the scale, 15 MW worth of power generation, potentially 150 MW in places at AZ ( don’t change the technology, just replicate).