The Scienza Per Amore Association has already proposed to the representatives of African Governments a number of integrated projects that permit the realization of a complete production cycle for optimal use of available resources through Hyst units.

In particular, the pilot project described here was designed for the countries of the Horn of Africa, and was configured to achieve three things:

• meeting the food needs of the population;
• providing the plant with energy and water;
• supplying the neighboring communities, even in areas deprived of the necessary infrastructures for distribution of energy.

The following image shows an aerial view of the pilot project:

1 Building that houses the Hyst unit.
2 Storehouses for the collection of waste biomass.
3 Biogas installation for the production of energy (on the left are two digesters and on the right is the area where the slurry, the residue of fermentation and the digestate are collected)
4 Tanks for collecting water extracted from the subsoil via appropriate wells.
5 Area allocated to stock breeding.

This is a medium-to-small size machine which involves the employment of about 20 workers designed to process about 6,500 tons of biomass per year. Its production capacity is about 5,000 tons of feed per year, 3,000 tons of fertilizer, and almost 2 million kWh of electricity.

The waste to be treated via the Hyst system includes, in this case, straw and peanut shells.
The area from which biomass is collected and that provides the 6,500 tons / year of waste spreads over an area of about 10 km (therefore rather limited) and, in this specific plant configuration, an integration of 800 tons / year (corn and cottonseed meal) is necessary.

By processing the same raw material with the Hyst system we will obtain feed for stock breeding and matrices for the production of biogas:

• 40% of the feed will be used in the site’s internal farm;
• the remaining 60%, namely over 2,500 tons, will be available to local stock breeders and will feed about 850 heads of cattle during the dry season.

The use of waste from agricultural crops balances the needs of farmers with those of the breeders, who are usually obliged to compete for the land.

The site is capable of holding 500 heads of cattle, for about 3-4 fattening cycles and a tonnage in live weight of 400 tons / year; animal manure will be allocated to the biogas installation.

The availability of feed throughout the year, including the dry season, provides considerable advantages for stock breeding. In fact, it reduces the need to transfer livestock from one grazing ground to another with the
changing of seasons, during which the animals are often exposed to the risk of epidemics, the main cause of death of livestock.

The biogas installation produces electricity:

• 30% is required to feed the entire site itself;
• the remaining 70%, namely approximately 1.9 million kWh, will meet the needs of 2,000 families (according to the average fuel consumption of the area where the plant is located).