Addax Bioenergy – powering up Sierra Leone

The Addax Bioenergy operation consists of a sugarcane estate, an ethanol refinery and a biomass power plant. At full capacity, the sugar cane harvested from the 10,000 hectare estate will be processed to produce 85,000m3 of bioethanol annually, for export and domestic markets. During operations, the residual fibres from sugarcane processing, called bagasse, is used to fuel a 32MW electricity plant, which will supply up to 15MW of power to the national grid, helping to stabilise the country’s electricity supply.

Addax Bioenergy employs over 2,000 people in a wide range of functions; agricultural, ethanol distillation, power production, engineering, electrical, mechanical and maintenance engineering, IT, human resources, marketing, finance, HSE, administration, logistics, procurement and transport.

The Addax Bioenergy investment has already created considerable new economic activity in Sierra Leone and has the potential to be the catalyst for many other renewable energy and agriculture developments in the country.

The investment model includes a number of steps to ensure the operation is truly sustainable in the long term and improves the quality of life for local residents. Addax Bioenergy has contributed to food security in the region by developing more than 3,600 hectares of community fields for crop cultivation and by training over 2,300 farmers to increase their productivity with improved agricultural practices at no cost to the communities.

In 2011, EAIF loaned Euros 20 million to support the project, which involves a total investment to date of Euro 455 million.