Via: Africa News

Flanked by rolling green hills tumbling into glassy waters, Kivu is not quite the picture of tranquility it seems, according to Francois Darchambeau from KivuWatt, a company that extracts gas from the lake’s waters for electricity.

Thousands of years of volcanic activity has caused a massive accumulation of methane and carbon dioxide to dissolve in the depths of Kivu — enough to prove monumentally destructive in the rare event they were released. The lake, however, poses both peril and promise.

KivuWatt, which says this is the only project of its kind anywhere in the world, saw an opportunity to tap these abundant gases for energy generation. A 20-minute speedboat ride is required to reach KivuWatt’s unique floating platform, a compact tangle of pipes and buoys as high as a multi-storey building moored in the Rwandan part of Kivu.

With a deafening roar, the facility pumps water saturated with carbon dioxide and methane from around 350 metres (1,150 feet) to the surface. As it rises, the water and gas separate as the pressure changes.

Priysham Nundah, managing director of KivuWatt, described the project as “halfway between a thermal and a renewable energy plant”.

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