World first: fair trade founders team up with Brazilian farmers to sell coffee husk pellets to Dutch energy company

In a unique project, the founding fathers of fair trade products have matched certified coffee farmers in Brazil to the largest energy company in the Netherlands. Development organisation Solidaridad, which launched the world's first officially certified fair trade product back in 1988 ('Max Havelaar' coffee), and energy company Essent are introducing a new form of biomass for use in power stations, using coffee husks as the raw material - a world first. The Doen Foundation is supporting the project because it is making a highly positive contribution to solving the climate problem and because it helps fair trade coffee farmers boost their incomes further, in a sustainable way. The cooperative model could potentially be replicated throughout the world for a range of crop residues (overview of the resource base), helping poor farmers in the South becoming biomass exporters.

The coffee husks are a residual product from Brazilian coffee cultivation. They contain cellulose and have a heating value similar to that of wood. The husks have a bad reputation and damage local coffee markets because they are often co-roasted with coffee beans for the production of low value instant coffee of bad quality.

The husks contain potassium which is why a fraction is used as an organic ferilizer on the coffee plantations. But around two thirds of the large residue stream is left to rot, with damaging effects on local water resources. The rotting husks also generate copious amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Solidaridad, knowing the coffee sector well, therefor decided to look at the resource as a green energy source. As a solid biofuel, the coffee husks have the right chemical properties which makes them suitable for replacing coal and other fossil fuels to produce electricity in power plants. Essent decided to test the fuel and is now effectively using the husks to generate green electricity - a world first. Early calculations of output show that with this innovation it will be possible to achieve a CO2 reduction of at least 90 per cent, compared to an average Dutch power station.

The fair trade coffee companies that supply the raw material - all certified in accordance with the standards of Utz Certified and/or the Rainforest Alliance - work with respect for people and the environment. The coffee harvest in Brazil produces the coffee husks that are compressed into a form known as pellets. At the end of this year, the entire production (around 5,000 tonnes) from this first year, will be shipped to the Netherlands and used to generate green electricity at Essent's Amer power station in Geertruidenberg - a plant with a combined electricity generating capacity of 1,245 megawatt and a heat generating capacity of 600 megawatt. If the whole process is successful, there will be a second load of 20,000 tonnes. In Brazil there is a potential of 150,000 to 200,000 tonnes of coffee husk pellets available on an annual basis. This is sufficient to provide more than 100,000 households with green electricity for a year:
energy :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: residue :: coffee :: Netherlands :: Brazil :: sustainability :: fair trade ::

The coffee husk is not edible. There is no competition with the food or animal feed chains. It is a residual product with a value of about five per cent of the main product. The new market is not expected to cause any expansion of this cultivation and there will not be any additional pressure on nature and small farmers.

The coffee farmers involved are all certified in accordance with the standards of Utz Certified and/or Rainforest Alliance. They now have an extra income thanks to the sale of coffee husks. The cooperation between Essent and Solidaridad is also prompted by the desire to link the existing quality systems of the two parties: Essent Green Gold Label and Solidaridad's Utz Certified label. This type of 'certification cascading' could become a model for future biomass trade.

The Doen Foundation co-finances this project because it offers a concrete example of how we can tackle climate change. Consumers and energy producers can now choose for real 'green electricity'. This product - biomass pellets from coffee husks - goes beyond sustainability criteria, it includes a fair price for farmers who produce it. Essent shows the use of biomass can be approached in a different way. Now it's the government's turn to create the correct financial framework and incentives to promote this kind of initiatives. - Jeffrey Prins, program manager Sustainable Development, Doen Foundation

Essent is the biggest producer of Green Electricity in The Netherlands and its aim is to utilise as much biomass as possible for the sustainable production of energy, though at the same time insisting on important conditions: production of the biomass (in liquid or solid form) must not have any negative consequences for the food and animal feed chains, biodiversity or economy of the countries from which the biomass comes. Essent emphasised and endorsed this view again during the Agreement of Schokland (30 June 2007, Schokland, The Netherlands). Essent is always looking for new, natural waste residues that can be used as biomass and that do not compete with the food or animal feed chains with which to produce Green Electricity at its power station in Geertruidenberg. The new hybrid power station which is about to be built will also be equipped for this.

With an annual turnover in 2006 of 6.4 billion euros, Essent is The Netherlands' biggest energy company. Essent supplies electricity, gas and heating to domestic and business customers. Essent operates throughout the entire energy chain: from the production of energy up to and including delivery to end users. The concern regards The Netherlands as its home market, but has now also built up a considerable market position in Germany and is increasingly active in Belgium. The environmental branch of the concern processes waste into energy and residual currents. Essent employs about 10,000 people.

Development organisation Solidaridad is the initiative behind, among other enterprises, Max Havelaar, Utz Certified and Café Oké and an authority on development problems and the potency of fair trade with third world countries. Solidaridad launched the first ever certified fair trade product in 1988. The organisation is continually starting up new initiatives which contribute to the fight against poverty in developing countries. Close collaboration with large and small companies is of crucial importance in this. As well as in the energy and coffee sectors, Solidaridad also operates in the textiles industry (Kuyichi, MADE-BY), in fruit (Oké fruit) and soya (including in collaboration with Campina).

The Doen Foundation is the foundation of the Good Causes Lotteries. DOEN is committed to an inhabitable world in which everyone can participate. It finances initiatives in the fields of Sustainable Development, Culture, Well-being and Social Cohesion. This project makes a positive contribution to solving the climate problem. The product meets the strictest requirements for sustainability of biomass, which go beyond merely saving CO2. Moreover, the public/private collaboration between Solidaridad and energy supplier Essent is a good example to others in the market.

References:
Essent: World scoop: Green electricity from coffee husks - Essent and Solidaridad launch fair biomass with great reduction in CO2 emissions - July 10, 2007.

Solidaridad: fair biomass projecht page.

Doen Stichting: Wereldprimeur: Groene stroom uit koffieschillen - July 10, 2007.

Biopact: Crop residues: how much biomass energy is out there? - July 14, 2006