Ener G Africa (EGA), a provider of clean and renewable energy solutions, on Thursday officially opened its new biomass stove and cookware manufacturing facility in the Western Cape town of Paarl. The factory will produce two different types of stoves and two different ranges of cooking pots.
“Our factory is a stainless steel factory that uses only world-class South African stainless steel,” emphasizes the EGA Business Development Manager. Dave Lello. “We have installed state-of-the-art machinery such as fiber laser cutters, various presses, bending machines, and polishing machines.”
The two types of stoves are the Multi-Application Fuel Efficient Cookstove (Mafecs) and the Forced Air Biomass (Fab) stove. The latter has two formats: single and double (two stove units in one frame). The new factory will be able to produce 120 Mafecs, 80 Fabs and 70 Double Fabs daily.
Mafecs can be supplied with a variety of fuel-containing “inserts” including wood, charcoal, gas and biomass pellets. The company is initially prioritizing wood fuels because the supply of pellets is currently woefully inadequate in South Africa and Mafecs is a closed system, making cooking in informal settlements much safer. Ideally, wood from exotic trees would be used as fuel. The Fab stove has a fan at the bottom that forces air into the bottom of the stove, making it extremely energy efficient.
There are two series of pots manufactured by EGA: SIZL pot and eCO2pot. The Sizzle Pot series consists of a 2 liter capacity pan, 4 liter, 6 liter and 8 liter pots. eCO2pot series covers the same size. The production capacity will be 500 SIZL pots and 400 eCO2 pots per day.
“Our SIZL pots have three layers at the bottom: a stainless steel layer, an aluminum layer, and another stainless steel layer,” Lello reports. “This protects the bottom and prevents food from burning, but the pot is still low-cost. It can be used on gas, electric, and induction stoves, as well as on biomass, including open flames. can not use.”
The eCO2pot is basically a SIZL pot with an integrated skirt attached. This skirt captures the hot air generated by the cooking process and raises the sides of the pot, making the sides of the pot part of the heating surface. This increases energy efficiency and reduces the amount of fuel required by approximately 25%.
“We have a ‘tools and fuel’ business model,” Lello explains. EGA plans to start its own production of biomass fuel pellets and also aims to stimulate greater production from other existing producers. This is an ideal fuel. Because it can be made locally from agricultural waste such as bagasse, rice stalks, corn stalks, and peanut husks, and its production creates local jobs. It is also environmentally friendly, sustainable and clean, with very low carbon emissions in production and distribution.
