The Belgian start-up Coosha is committed to helping Africa get rid of an unhealthy habit that is harmful to nature and the environment: cooking with wood. For an estimated 2 billion people on earth, this is currently the only way to heat food, says Johan Moyersoen, CEO of Coosha.
Coosha’s ambition is to have one hundred thousand families in Africa cooking on green hydrogen at atmospheric pressure by 2030. They can purchase that gas in bags from a local company that produces hydrogen with solar panels developed in Belgium. Coosha is developing this in Namibia, where King Philippe visited last week, and also has plans to do so in Uganda and Rwanda.
Coosha stands for Cooling and Cooking in Subsaharan Africa, explains Johan Moyersoen. He founded the company together with Johan Martens, professor emeritus at KU Leuven, who over the past ten years has been the driving force behind the development of a new technology in which a solar panel directly produces hydrogen, as opposed to a classic solar panel, which generates electricity. .
Backpack
The Belgian king was in Namibia in the company of federal energy minister Tinne Van de Straeten (Green) to see what the Belgian-Namibian collaboration for the development of green hydrogen has achieved so far. The two countries concluded an agreement in principle during the climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland in 2021 to make this happen.
The king received a demonstration of cooking on hydrogen. He was also allowed to admire the large bag with which the consumer can carry the gas on his back. That part of the state visit led to a lot of comments and discussion about the sense or nonsense of green hydrogen. Questions arose especially about safety.
Hydrogen is very explosive when it comes into contact with oxygen. This makes storage, transport and transfer not without danger. At the same time, it was doubted whether such a bag would be sufficient for cooking or running a refrigerator.
One bag would be good for more than one cooking. — © belga
“A classic solar boiler, which produces heat, or classic solar panels seem to be simpler and safer alternatives to reduce cooking with wood in Africa,” say energy researchers Joannes Laveyne of Ghent University and Pieter Vingerhoets of Energyville.
Moyersoen is confident that they did not make any mistakes when it comes to safety. “We have been preparing this project for three years.”
According to Jan Rongé, who heads Solhyd, the company that develops and produces the hydrogen panels, such a hydrogen bag is good for 3 kilowatt hours of energy. ‘Which equals two cooking sessions’.
Rongé says he is convinced that there is a need for various alternatives in Africa clean cooking to give a strong and quick boost. He points out that the International Energy Agency (IEA) would consider it a significant step forward if half of Africans who cook with wood would switch to more environmentally friendly wood-burning or fossil fuel cooking stoves.
According to Rongé, the big challenge is to offer a cheap alternative that can compete with wood extraction. Coosha is convinced that green hydrogen in bags can compete in price with petroleum and natural gas in bottles. Pieter Vingerhoets from Energyville wonders whether that is not too rosy a picture of things.
The production of the hydrogen panels has yet to really get going. So far, about ten have been made, which are used for demonstration projects. Two panels were shipped to the African country especially for the Belgian king’s visit to Namibia.
From green energy factory to energy port
The Belgian king was introduced to two other Belgian green energy projects in Namibia.
The shipping group CMB has one filling station for green hydrogen built. A large solar panel park supplies green electricity that is then converted into green hydrogen via an electrolyser. It is the run-up to a multi-billion dollar project. CMB, together with Ohlthaver & List group (O&L) – Namibia’s largest company – wants to invest up to $3 billion in green hydrogen in Namibia in the coming years. This will be used, among other things, to produce green ammonia as fuel for ships and the production of fertilizer in Namibia.
Port of Antwerp-Bruges concluded an agreement in principle with the Namibian port operator Namport for the construction of a new one energy port. This concerns an area of 1,300 hectares that is still largely desert. It requires an investment of 250 million euros. The port of Antwerp will account for approximately 20 million euros. (pse)
