C-NES is a world-leading team of highly qualified engineers, researchers, scientists and analysts.

OUR COMPANY

C-NES is an engineering consultancy specialising in strategic planning and integrating energy management and renewable energy technologies, especially biogas and its derivative products.

OUR VISION

To be the leading provider of integrated carbon neutrality solutions for the mining industry, driving the Just Transition to a carbon-neutral future through the utilisation of renewable energy technologies, especially biogas, and its derivative products. We aspire to be agile and innovative and substantively contribute to environmental justice, the Just Transition and the Sustainable Development Goals.

We are specialists in the Just Transition aspects of renewable energy, providing solutions amenable to community involvement and diversified economic benefit.

OUR CORE COMPETENCIES

  • Carbon-neutral roadmap development

  • Renewable energy system design and economic modeling

  • Scoping, designing and implementation of energy management projects

  • Biogas system design and operation

  • Energy and data analytics

  • Energy project performance tracking & measurement & verification

  • Sustainable resource strategy development

  • Project management

  • Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) & Industrial Ecology

OUR TEAM

  • Professor Solomon is a mining engineer with 40 years of experience in the gold, platinum, diamond, and coal sectors. Inter alia Senior Mining Engineer for SRK Consulting, Principal Mining Engineer for Bateman Projects (Van Eck and Lurie) and Principal Mining Engineer and Director Mining for the Mineral Corporation. He is an Honorary Life Fellow of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM), where he has served as a Member of the Council of the Institute for over a decade and for which he chairs the ESGS Committee.

  • Rex is a registered Professional Engineer with over 35 years of experience in project management, chemical and process engineering, mining and minerals processing, pulp and paper, fertilizer, and more recently, renewable energy. After 10 years as a production engineer, he has 25 years of experience as a design engineer specialising in minerals processing and renewable energy. He is accepted as NI 43- 101 defined Competent Person for TSX listed projects.

  • James is a registered Renewable Energy Professional with the Association of Energy Engineers and specialises in energy system analysis, data management, and data visualisation of energy programs. Over the past 2 years, James has been developing solutions to reduce Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions within the mining industry in South Africa, focusing on bio-based options.

  • Patronella is a sustainability enthusiast with an MSc degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cape Town. Patronella’s research background is in sustainable engineering solutions for hydrogen gas production. Additionally, Patronella holds a B.Eng. Hons in Chemical Engineering from the National University of Science and Technology and is certified in Quality Management Systems (QMS). Patronella has gained extensive experience in various roles, including Water Quality/Production Controller and Junior Process and Chemical Engineer in the lubrication industry.

  • David specializes in the sustainability integration of mining companies with regard to environmental and socio-economic systems. David has experience as a researcher and project manager in areas such as mine dust, energy management planning of large industrial-scale mines, formulation of national policy for mine closure, and concurrent economic diversification for mining areas. David is proficient in Life Cycle Analyses and Circular Economy thinking. Most recently he has project managed two consecutive economic diversification programs in the South African Platinum industry and assisted with drafting the National Mine Closure Strategy.

  • Jean-Marc holds a B.Eng in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Pretoria and gained extensive experience working as a business improvement consultant in the mining industry. His focus included applying systems thinking, process and operating model design, lean principles and project management tools in various improvement projects. Jean-Marc gained an avid interest in the sustainability and energy field whilst working as a consultant in the mining industry, and joined C-NES as project engineer to be able to apply his experience in this field.

OUR ASSOCIATES

  • Anaerobic Biogas Digester Specialist

    Wakonda SpA, Italy

  • Opuntia Ficus-Indica value chain and sustainable foods specialist

    University of the Free State

  • Energy management and measurement and verification consultant

  • Plant Pathologist and Ecologist

    University of the Free State

  • Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Dual-fuelling Specialist

    Vehicle Gas Solutions

  • Synthetic fuels specialist

    University of Cape Town / C star

  • Electrical and power trading specialist

    Energi-Engineering

  • Rangeland Management and Opuntia Ficus-Indica specialist

    University of the Free State

  • Synthetic fuels specialist

    University of Cape Town / C star

  • Anaerobic Biogas Digester Specialist

    Logical Waste

KEY DIFFERENTIATORS

Agile, innovative, and holistic

Total integration with client’s teams

Systems engineering approach to solving problems considering the upstream and downstream effects

Insight into the production of bioenergy, biofuels and next generation biomass technologies

Talented core team that can integrate technologies between industries and applications

Experienced broader team of specialists and consultants

Supported by academics from leading universities in South Africa and world-wide

Excellent research and development capacity

Let’s Work Together

Further case studies available upon request. Please provide some information on your project or goals and we’ll move the conversation on from there.