Spanish company Ferry Group is to invest €42/US$55.2 million in a project for the production of biomass fuel pellets in Bulgaria.
The 3-year project consists of establishing plantations of paulownia trees near the city of Tran. Paulownia is a fast-growing tree used for the commercial production of fuel pellets.
Malaysia opens second biofuels terminal
Last month, Malaysia's Sabah State government officially opened a first biofuels and palm oil processing hub called the 'Palm Oil Industrial Cluster' (POIC) in Malaysia's largest palm producing province, located on the island of Borneo (see earlier post). Today, Johor State opened a second bioterminal at the port of Tanjung Langsat. In total, Malaysia has granted 52 biodiesel production licences, amounting to a virtual production capacity of over five million tonnes per year (31 million barrels).
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who opened the biofuel hub with its 480ha industrial park sums up the advantages of the terminal:
- the port's strategic location at the centre of Asia's main shipping lanes
- the fact that the biofuels hub is located in Johor State, which is one of the largest palm producing regions in the country
- the abundance of highly skilled and lower skilled labor
- the existence of a well functioning logistical infrastructure
So far, the biofuel terminal has attracted a total investment of more than RM8.3 billion (€1.7billion/US$2.3 billion), including foreign direct investment, with the following companies having set up factories and facilities:
- Carotino Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the J.C. Chang Group, has constructed the first fully functional biodiesel plant. Carotino is the first company in the world to have successfully commercialised the technology for the production of low pour point palm biodiesel that can be used in cold northern climates (Europe, North America). The plant's production potential is 60,000 tons of tropical biodiesel and 30,000 tons of 'winterised' biodiesel.
- JCorp, which has invested a total of RM400 million (€84 million/US$109 million) of which RM160 million (€34 million/US$43 million) has been spent on port facilities, land development and other infrastructure support facilities. JCorp's subsidiary Kulim (M) Bhd is to build a biodiesel factory.
- Tanjung Langsat Port Bhd which is constructing a petroleum refinery, which will have a capacity to store 100,000 tonnes of diesel at its initial stage.
- A joint-venture between Felda-Johore Bulkers Sdn Bhd and JCorp, called Langsat Bulkers Sdn Bhd, will set-up a RM23 million (€4.9 million/US$6.2 million) tank to store biodiesel for the first of several phases of the project. The tank which was specially designed for handling cargo biodiesel has a capacity of 20,000 tons and will be constructed by a joint-venture firm between Kulim and German firm CremerOleo GmbH.
- IOI Corp Bhd which is constructing a biodiesel plant - no news about the total investment or capacity.
- Six foreign companies have shown interest in building biodiesel factories at the terminal.
- The Malaysian Palm Oil Board, which is a strategic partner in the project and which is building a knowledge infrastructure around the bioterminal.
More information:
- New Straits Times: Biofuel hub in Tanjung Langsat a great boost - 16 Aug 2006
- Bernama: Abdullah Stays Fullu Committed to Success of 9MP - 15 august 2006
- Tanjung Langsat Port: Kulim, IOI to set up biodiesel plants in Johor
- Tanjung Langsat Port: [Bahasa Melayu] Langsat Bulkers Sdn Bhd (LBSB) Bina Stor Simpan Biodiesel - joint-venture building a biodiesel storage tank
- Tanjung Langsat Port: [Bahasa Melayu] Tanjung Langsat hub serantau biofuel - introduction to the rationale behind the bioterminal
- Malaysian Palm Oil Board, homepage.
- The MPOB's biofuel policy, with information about 'winterized' palm biodiesel: Biofuels policy [*.pdf]
ethanol :: biodiesel :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: bioterminal :: Malaysia :: Article continues
Earlier we were shocked to learn that an OPEC researcher went so far as to 
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Brazil to quadruple biodiesel output by 2008, aiming to reduce rural poverty
Along the way, the Brazilian government is experimenting with interesting approaches to growing biodiesel feedstocks, by involving the poor, the landless and small farmers. It is tying its biofuels programs to social development by creating cooperatives, by promoting family run energy farming, and by redistributing land and gradually solving the age-old problem of the landless (the socalled sem-terras). One of the reasons why biofuels in the developing world make so much sense is precisely because of the socio-economic benefits they can bring to the many small farmers who used to be dependent on single cash crops for which markets have often collapsed. Brazil is once again showing the way.
Finally, as a forward and outward looking nation, Brazil is ready to lead a South-South movement of biofuels producers, by helping developing countries in Central-Africa and Asia in establishing their biofuels industry. Brazil has the technical and scientific expertise, the economic and social experience, and, if necessary, the capital.
Lula's commitment
Biodiesel is most often associated with the largest producer, Europe, which uses rapeseed as its main feedstock, or with the US, where the fuel is predominantly based on soybeans - both crops are produced under intensive quasi-industrial conditions. But Brazil has the advantage of being a tropical country with a lot of land and of having a large population of small farmers, which makes it possible to build a biofuel industry based on smallholder plantations.
President Lula, who is campaigning for his second term (which he will probably secure easily) is a staunch advocate of this approach. One of his promises has been to solve the age-old problem of Brazil's rural poverty and of its tens of thousands of landless people. Biofuels might offer a way out. "I have always believed that biodiesel might solve the problem of small and landless farmers, I am certain that it is the fuel of the future", he says. He has vied to effectively implement the law any time soon now, because oil prices keep rising. 600 fuel stations accross the country already offer the biodiesel (some of which offer H-Bio), but the number will have to be augmented in a crash program if the government wants to achieve the 2008 target.
Lula's aim now is to strengthen the rural and land reforms that he initiated by tieing them to the biodiesel program - and to speed up both (for an introduction to Brazil's new rural policies, one of which involves a large rural credit program, please visit the Brasil em foco website which contains a good overview).
Collective approaches, social development
In one of Brazil's poorest regions, state oil company Petrobras has launched an innovative social project that involves 5000 families of small farmers and that is aimed at alleviating poverty, boosting incomes and strengthening food security - all through the same bioenergy program. And the farmers are enthusiastic: "The oil wells all people dream of owning grow here in our very own gardens, and what's more, they will never run dry!" says Livania Frizon of Canudos, the collectively run 'agro-village' situated near Ceara Mirim, some 100 kilometres away from Natal, the capital of Rio Grande do Norte state.
Next to the rows of papayas, banana trees and cassava shrubs, the farmers have planted several hectares of 'pinhao manso' (Jatropha curcas, also known as the physic nut). The pinhao originates from that semi-arid region and thrives well without the need for large fertilizer or water inputs. The nuts from the tree contain 38% of an oil suitable as a biodiesel feedstock. Petrobras has offered the villagers the seedlings which now have become 1200 thick bushes of 'pinhao manso'.
The 142 smallholder families of Palheiros III [project file, *.pdf], another rural community near Upanema (some 250 kilometres from Natal) received ricin grains (Ricinus communis, also known as castor beans - an excellent oil energy crop):
Assis Gama, the president of Palheiros III (one of Petrobras's projects under its 'Zero Hunger Program'), is proud of the community's 300 hectare plantation. "This crop needs almost no work and after two years, one shrub allows for six harvests. The crop allows us to use marginal land that we don't use. It can be integrated with our fruit and legume cultures."
Ricin, which grows well on poor soils brings an additional income to those small farmers. Brasilia encourages them to make use of the land that was given to them under Lula's agricultural reforms, which provided smallholder farmers with credits aimed at promoting family run agriculture. "Our challenge is to organize the production of raw biomass, because soon the large biodiesel factory that is being built in Rio Grande do Norte will be operational. Each state in Brazil will have several such factories", says Ulisses Soares, a geologist with a long career at Petrobras.
Intensive research and innovative technologies
The site where the harvests of the small farmers are gathered is in an experimental phase. In the future, the aim is to create central hubs near biodiesel factories, where the rural families from the villages surrounding a hub, can bring their energy harvests after which they are taken up in a logistical chain that ends with the delivery of biodiesel. This first hub is located near the immense Guamaré refinery and is part of an innovative industrialisation process that resulted out of a €8 million investment by Petrobras. "Nobody has ever succeeded in producing biodiesel directly from mamona or other seeds. The only known production process is based on using straight vegetable oil as the basic feedstock," explains Mauro Silva, the engineer responsible for testing the new process. In this phase, which will last for 18 months, 100 tons of different oil seeds will be tested each month to find the most productive and appropriate crops. Obviously, the goal is to produce biodiesel in as competitive a way as possible.
"We are researching many different biofuel feedstocks adapted to equatorial regions, from enhanced ricin and pinhao manso to palm oil or bovine fat," notes Paulo Morelli, supervisor of the biodiesel programs at the ministry of agriculture in Brasilia. Even though Brazil does not want to become a 'biodiesel emirate', it is willing to share its research and its know-how with tropical countries and developing countries who stand to benefit from biodiesel. The country is preparing cooperation agreements with Angola, Thailand and India.
More information:
Le Monde: La fièvre du biodiesel s'est emparée du Brésil - August 12, 2006
Petrobras: 'social and environmental responsability' website - even though we are skeptics when it comes to large corporations and their standardised Social Corporate Responsability efforts, we think Petrobras stands out, partly because it is state-run and therefor resorts under the Lula government, known for its efforts to bring social justice to the country.
Background information on land reform and agrarian reform in Brazil: Land Research Action Network / Brazil.
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posted by Biopact team at 9:55 PM 0 comments links to this post