Built for paraffin, running on pellets: what 60+ guests saw in Gqeberha

On 14 October, more than 60 guests stood next to a boiler that was built for paraffin and now runs on wood pellets. The live demonstration was part of the Coffee Morning hosted by Coega Biomass Centre with the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber, at Cape Carbon's test facility in Gqeberha.

Your heat still follows the oil price

Most South African factories make their steam and heat with paraffin, diesel or HFO, and those prices move with every oil shock. Cas Snijders, our Commercial Director, opened with the numbers: paraffin more than doubled between March and May, and diesel is up 76% since March.

A pellet price built on local costs moved by only a fraction of that. Made here, priced here: our wood pellets come from invasive alien trees and forestry residues, so your fuel cost stays local.

What guests saw

That brought us to the conversion: a boiler built for liquid fuel can't burn pellets until it's converted. Jodé Fourie and Louié Maas, the engineers who designed and built the burner, took guests down to see one.

Inside is the converted boiler, with our 1 MW EcoFlame burner bolted on, running on 8 mm pellets from Coega Biomass Centre. A 1-cube hopper holds about 800 kg. At the load we ran on the day, that lasts roughly a full day shift: 8 to 10 hours.

Guests got close, phones out. And the questions were sharp. How big can it go? Will it link to our own control systems? Some stayed long after the programme ended to work through the details with our engineers.

Couldn't make it? Here's how the day went.

Want to see how the conversion works? Jodé walks you through the boiler room step by step in our blog. Watch the boiler room walkthrough

See it for yourself