Rabat – Moroccan engineers have developed an innovative technology called SMO®, using a solar oven to convert waste into energy and recycle carbon dioxide.
The new technology, part of the North South cooperation projects, which allows a “second life to our waste”, was presented at the Institute for Research and Development in Paris on November 5, before the COP21, according to Medias24.
Developed in Marrakech, SMO® is the only process in the world able to make a solar pyrolysis from wet waste without prior sorting.
PEPS, a Moroccan company in partnership with French company NST, began to research the field of solar thermal in 2012 and came up with the unique solar pyrolysis furnace.
The solar oven SMO® is able to process up to 27 tons of waste per day, with an electricity production of 1.2 MWh per day, while recycling its CO2 at the same time.
The technology uses solar energy transforming moist carbon compounds into fuel and plastics “without emitting greenhouse gases with the use of autonomous energy”.
According to the same source, the project received financial support from Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN), the government entity that supports and promotes solar energy.
SMO® has been developed in phases – Phase I (C1) began in February 2014 in Marrakech. NST and PEPS expect the full SMO® process to work at its full capacity in a period of 24 months from its inception.
Moroccan engineers plan to manufacture a C2 unit with a gasification reactor to convert all carbon syngas produced by C1, the report noted.
In addition, they plan to create the C3 unit, a reactor with the option to condense methane into petroleum products, while still recycling all CO2.
For SMO® to convert waste into energy, large amounts of strong sunlight are needed such as that from tropical Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
