The North-West University’s (NWU’s) Enactus team secured the second position in the ideation challenge competition during the annual EnactusZA National Competition that took place at the Sandton Convention Centre on 8 and 9 July 2019.
This competition brings together the top student, academic and business leaders from around the country. Beyond the experience, special events at the competition provides unique opportunities for networking, mentorship and idea exchange.
Various teams from national universities participated, showcasing their institutions’ community projects in their surrounding communities.
The NWU Enactus team showed how biogas can solve social issues, and this earned them second place in the competition.
Winter Masike from the NWU Enactus team says one of the social issues that motivated their project was the increase in the amount of food waste, even though people still go hungry.
Other problems they identified were that some people are unable to pay their electricity bills and that others do not have electricity at all. People end up using wood for cooking and to keep warm in winter, resulting in air pollution and people developing respiratory illnesses.
“We came up with Project Hope, which is based on biogas production and extraction from food and animal waste to generate electricity,” says Winter. She explains that it uses methane (CH4), hydrogen (H2), hydrogen sulphate (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2) from food and animal waste to produce biogas.
Winter says they worked with the community of the Lokaleng village near Mahikeng and the NWU’s subject group Chemistry. “We collected food waste from student residences, restaurants, hotels and supermarkets. The food and animal waste was then fermented inside a biogas digester to produce biogas that can be used for cooking, heating water and powering houses.”
“Biogas is definitely a solution that South Africa needs to consider, since it could make a huge difference at reasonable pricing. Food waste can be used to produce biogas for the community, and slurry can be used as fertiliser to grow organic vegetables,” she adds.
“The project has the potential to solve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and produce revenue for the community. It can also improve people’s lives in an economic, social and sustainable way,” says Winter.
She explains that the biogas project can be sustainable, and highlights the following statements from their project proposal:
- Social impact
Developing an entrepreneurial mindset, creating economic development for the youth and improving the standard of living for communities with electricity.
- Economic impact
Creating job opportunities, reducing electricity usage and bills and reducing the dependence on traditional energy sources and foreign fertilizer on micro-level.
- Environmental impact
Reducing carbon emission and landfilling cost, improving public image by contributing towards meeting the country’s zero-waste goal.
The NWU Enactus team secured second position during the annual EnactusZA National Competition.
