Africa-centered biofuel and oil company Energem lists on the AIM
Canada's Energem Resources Inc announced that it has been listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and is trading under the symbol ENM. Energem is an energy and biofuels company primarily engaged in the African energy sector, with several concrete biofuel projects being implemented. Energem produces ethanol from molasses in Kenya, while the energy crop of choice for a large biodiesel project in Mozambique is jatropha curcas, the hardy shrub that yields inedible oil. Energem disposed of certain non-core mining and up-stream oil and gas assets, to focus increasingly on renewable fuels.
The company now identifies the following as its core markets:
Oil prices are expected to remain high whilst, at the same time, the pressure to reduce dependency on carbon-based and non-renewable sources of energy is likely to increase. This pressure is expected to develop the biofuels market in which the group is now focussed, with African countries acting as both consumers (Kenya) and exporters (Mozambique).
Mozambique
Energem has initiated its first jatropha curcas farming project in the Bilene District of the Gaza province in Mozambique. The project operations are conducted through the ventures wholly owned Mozambican subsidiary, Energem Renewable Energy.
The initial land allocated to the project (1000 ha) will be scaled up dramatically over the life of the project and it is anticipated that by the time this project reaches maturity the land size of the farming operations will be anything from 60,000 hectares to 200,000 hectares:
energy :: sustainability :: ethanol :: biodiesel ::biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: jatropha :: sugarcane :: Mozambique :: Kenya :: Africa ::
The project enjoys the full support at all government and provincial levels and employs anything from 200 – 300 people, with this figure is set to increase.
It is intended that the commercial crop of jatropha seed harvested from the farming operations will be processed to produce a crude biodiesel which will be exported to the projects target market, in the European Union. Initial testing of research crops and oils produced therefrom fall within the EU specification for biodiesel.
Jatropha curcas has been specifically chosen as the projects principal feedstock crop. Jatropha is a hardy, inedible plant, whose seed produces a relatively high yield of oil when pressed. The cost of producing crude biodiesel from Jatropha is low when compared to current palm oil and rapeseed feedstock. The land on which the project is farming does not compete with ordinary feed crop land.
Kenya
Energem is the controlling shareholder in the Spectre International Ltd, which manages the Kisumu ethanol plant in Kenya. The molasses-based plant was initiated in the late 1970’s as a state-owned project that was subsequently mothballed in the eighties. It was acquired by Spectre in 2003, who immediately commenced with a rehabilitation project that resulted in the commissioning of the plant in 2004. The yeast plant was completed in 2006.
Energem is the controlling shareholder in Spectre with a 55% share. A local partner, with manufacturing and distribution experience in the region owns 40% while a development trust holds 5% for the benefit of the local community.
Independent valuation and an engineering report completed in March 2004 placed plant pre-commissioning value at US$24 million. The plant replacement value estimated at approx US$100 million, with Energem’s 55% interest included at the book value of US$24 million.
Currently a daily output of 60,000 litres has been achieved whilst Energem focuses on increasing the yeast production and maximizing the usage of natural by products. Production output of up to 120,000 litres per day can be achieved with a marginal investment.
Current products include industrial ethanol for blending with liquid (bio-fuels), potable alcohol for beverages and chemical industries, and yeast.
Besides having access to the water supplied by Lake Victoria the plant is located in the center of a sugar cane growing region where it’s most important raw material, molasses, is readily available.
The plant is well positioned to supply ethanol as a fuel additive to Kenya, Uganda and other nearby countries and this strategy is in line with local governmental aspiration and also complimentary to mid-stream oil activities of the Energem Group.
Through the introduction to the AIM the directors are seeking access to London's capital markets and a broader investor base: no new money is being raised at this stage and no existing shares are being sold by the current shareholders. Major shareholders include the Board, who in aggregate own approximately 28% of the shares in issue, RAB Special Situations (Master) Fund Limited, which holds approximately 17% of the shares in issue and RAB Energy Fund Limited, which holds approximately 8% the shares in issue. Canaccord Adams Limited is acting as Nominated Adviser (NOMAD) and broker to Energem.
References:
Energem: Energem Resources Inc - Announces listing on the London Stock Exchange - Alternative Investment Market (AIM) [*.pdf] - November 26, 2007.
Biopact: Energem acquires jatropha biodiesel project in Mozambique - August 02, 2007
Article continues
The company now identifies the following as its core markets:
- Mid-Stream Oil - refined oil product distribution and sales, storage and infrastructure development: operations in Nigeria and Malawi and a methanol blended fuel manufacturing and sales project in Beijing, China.
- Biofuels - production, sale and distribution of crude and refined biofuels, including: ethanol production in Kenya and a jatropha-based biodiesel development project in Mozambique (previous post)
- Trading and Logistics - procurement, supply and logistics management to industry in sub-Saharan Africa.
Oil prices are expected to remain high whilst, at the same time, the pressure to reduce dependency on carbon-based and non-renewable sources of energy is likely to increase. This pressure is expected to develop the biofuels market in which the group is now focussed, with African countries acting as both consumers (Kenya) and exporters (Mozambique).
Mozambique
Energem has initiated its first jatropha curcas farming project in the Bilene District of the Gaza province in Mozambique. The project operations are conducted through the ventures wholly owned Mozambican subsidiary, Energem Renewable Energy.
The initial land allocated to the project (1000 ha) will be scaled up dramatically over the life of the project and it is anticipated that by the time this project reaches maturity the land size of the farming operations will be anything from 60,000 hectares to 200,000 hectares:
energy :: sustainability :: ethanol :: biodiesel ::biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: jatropha :: sugarcane :: Mozambique :: Kenya :: Africa ::
The project enjoys the full support at all government and provincial levels and employs anything from 200 – 300 people, with this figure is set to increase.
It is intended that the commercial crop of jatropha seed harvested from the farming operations will be processed to produce a crude biodiesel which will be exported to the projects target market, in the European Union. Initial testing of research crops and oils produced therefrom fall within the EU specification for biodiesel.
Jatropha curcas has been specifically chosen as the projects principal feedstock crop. Jatropha is a hardy, inedible plant, whose seed produces a relatively high yield of oil when pressed. The cost of producing crude biodiesel from Jatropha is low when compared to current palm oil and rapeseed feedstock. The land on which the project is farming does not compete with ordinary feed crop land.
Kenya
Energem is the controlling shareholder in the Spectre International Ltd, which manages the Kisumu ethanol plant in Kenya. The molasses-based plant was initiated in the late 1970’s as a state-owned project that was subsequently mothballed in the eighties. It was acquired by Spectre in 2003, who immediately commenced with a rehabilitation project that resulted in the commissioning of the plant in 2004. The yeast plant was completed in 2006.
Energem is the controlling shareholder in Spectre with a 55% share. A local partner, with manufacturing and distribution experience in the region owns 40% while a development trust holds 5% for the benefit of the local community.
Independent valuation and an engineering report completed in March 2004 placed plant pre-commissioning value at US$24 million. The plant replacement value estimated at approx US$100 million, with Energem’s 55% interest included at the book value of US$24 million.
Currently a daily output of 60,000 litres has been achieved whilst Energem focuses on increasing the yeast production and maximizing the usage of natural by products. Production output of up to 120,000 litres per day can be achieved with a marginal investment.
Current products include industrial ethanol for blending with liquid (bio-fuels), potable alcohol for beverages and chemical industries, and yeast.
Besides having access to the water supplied by Lake Victoria the plant is located in the center of a sugar cane growing region where it’s most important raw material, molasses, is readily available.
The plant is well positioned to supply ethanol as a fuel additive to Kenya, Uganda and other nearby countries and this strategy is in line with local governmental aspiration and also complimentary to mid-stream oil activities of the Energem Group.
Through the introduction to the AIM the directors are seeking access to London's capital markets and a broader investor base: no new money is being raised at this stage and no existing shares are being sold by the current shareholders. Major shareholders include the Board, who in aggregate own approximately 28% of the shares in issue, RAB Special Situations (Master) Fund Limited, which holds approximately 17% of the shares in issue and RAB Energy Fund Limited, which holds approximately 8% the shares in issue. Canaccord Adams Limited is acting as Nominated Adviser (NOMAD) and broker to Energem.
References:
Energem: Energem Resources Inc - Announces listing on the London Stock Exchange - Alternative Investment Market (AIM) [*.pdf] - November 26, 2007.
Biopact: Energem acquires jatropha biodiesel project in Mozambique - August 02, 2007
Article continues
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Scientists find ocean fertilization won't work - final blow to controversial geoengineering option
Ocean fertilization, the process of adding iron or other nutrients to the ocean to cause large algal blooms, has been proposed as a possible 'geoengineering' solution to global warming because the growing algae absorb carbon dioxide as they grow. But research performed at Stanford University, the Carnegie Institution of Washington and Oregon State University, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, now concludes that ocean fertilization is not an effective method of reducing CO2 in the atmosphere because of the seasonal dynamics of the way in which algae sink to the bottom of the ocean.
This technique of ocean fertilization, which is analogous to adding fertilizer to a lawn to help the grass grow, only reduces carbon dioxide in the atmosphere if the carbon incorporated into the algae sinks to deeper waters. This process, which scientists call the 'Biological Pump' (image, click to enlarge), has been thought to be dependent on the abundance of algae in the top layers of the ocean. The more algae in a bloom, the more carbon is transported, or 'pumped', from the atmosphere to the deep ocean.
To test this theory, researchers compared the abundance of algae in the surface waters of the world's oceans with the amount of carbon actually sinking to deep water. They found clear seasonal patterns in both algal abundance and carbon sinking rates. However, the relationship between the two was surprising: less carbon was transported to deep water during a summertime bloom than during the rest of the year. This analysis has never been done before and required designing specialized mathematical algorithms. By jumping a mathematical hurdle the scientists found a new globally synchronous signal.
The global study of Dr. Lutz and colleagues suggests that greatly enhanced carbon sequestration should not be expected no matter the location or duration of proposed large-scale ocean fertilization experiments.
According to the researchers, the limited duration of previous ocean fertilization experiments may not be why carbon sequestration wasn't found during those artificial blooms. This apparent puzzle could actually reflect how marine ecosystems naturally handle blooms and agrees with our findings. A bloom is like ringing the marine ecosystem dinner bell. The microbial and food web dinner guests appear and consume most of the fresh algal food:
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: climate change :: ocean fertilisation :: carbon dioxide :: algae :: bioenergy with carbon storage :: negative emissions :: geoengineering ::
The study highlights the need to understand natural ecosystem processes, especially in a world where change is occurring so rapidly, concluded Dr. Lutz.
This study closely follows a September Ocean Iron Fertilization symposium at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) attended by leading scientists, international lawyers, policy makers, and concerned representatives from government, business, academia and environmental organizations.
Topics discussed included potential environmental dangers, economic implications, and the uncertain effectiveness of ocean fertilization. To date none of the major ocean fertilization experiments have verified that a significant amount of deep ocean carbon sequestration occurs:
Some scientists have suggested that verification may require more massive and more permanent experiments. Together with commercial operators they plan to go ahead with large-scale and more permanent ocean fertilization experiments and note that potential negative environmental consequences must be balanced against the harm expected due to ignoring climate change.
During the Ocean Iron Fertilization meeting Dr. Hauke Kite-Powell, of the Marine Policy Center at WHOI, estimated the possible future value of ocean fertilization at $100 billion of the emerging international carbon trading market, which has the goal of mitigating global warming. However, according to Professor Rosemary Rayfuse, an expert in International Law and the Law of the Sea at the University of New South Wales, Australia, who also attended the Woods Hole meeting, ocean fertilization projects are not currently approved under any carbon credit regulatory scheme and the sale of offsets or credits from ocean fertilization on the unregulated voluntary markets is basically nothing short of fraudulent.
The findings of Dr. Lutz and colleagues coincide with and affirm this month's decision of the London Convention (the International Maritime Organization body that oversees the dumping of wastes and other matter at sea) to regulate controversial commercial ocean fertilization schemes. This gathering of international maritime parties advised that such schemes are currently not scientifically justified.
Strategies to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide, including the enhancement of biological sinks through processes such as ocean fertilization, will be considered by international governmental representatives during the thirteenth United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in Bali next month.
Virtually all of the radical geoengineering options proposed so far have been rejected for being too risky. These include emulating volcanoes' cooling effects by pumping sulphur into the atmosphere (debunked as outright dangerous to the planet - earlier post), creating a giant space mirror (which would be prohibitively costly), or generating highly reflective clouds (more here). Most of these proposals have been simulated and some have been shown to be full of uncertainties and hence generate a high number of risks (previous post). Other, safer proposals have been found to be too costly (a recent example).
One of the only geoengineering proposals seen as economically viable, environmentally safe and efficient, is the production of carbon-negative bioenergy. By planting biomass (trees, energy crops), and utilising them as feedstocks for energy production to replace fossil fuels, a 'carbon-neutral' form of energy is obtained. But when the CO2 that is released into the atmosphere during this process is captured and locked up - either in geological formations or in soils - then carbon-negative energy and fuels can be generated. Scientists have found that, when implemented on a planetary scale (hence 'geoengineering'), such negative emissions energy systems can take us back to pre-industrial atmospheric CO2 levels by mid century (previous post, here and here).
These 'bio-energy with carbon storage' (BECS) systems are currently becoming the object of more attention in the energy and climate change community. With these systems it becomes possible to take historic CO2 emissions back out of the atmosphere. Other renewables, like wind or solar energy, are 'carbon neutral' at best (schematic, click to enlarge). That is, they do not add new emissions to the atmosphere. But BECS systems go much further: they actually take carbon dioxide emissions from the past out of the carbon cycle, thus radically tackling the main cause of climate change. Now that we are facing the potential doom scenario of 'abrupt climate change', negative emissions bioenergy will have to be promoted.
References:
Michael J. Lutz, Ken Caldeira, Robert B. Dunbar, Michael J. Behrenfeld, "Seasonal rhythms of net primary production and particulate organic carbon flux to depth describe the efficiency of biological pump in the global ocean", Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 112, 2007, C10011, doi:10.1029/2006JC003706.
Eurekalert: New research discredits $100B global warming 'fix' - November 29, 2007.
Biopact: International maritime body rejects risky ocean geoengineering - November 09, 2007
Biopact: The end of a utopian idea: iron-seeding the oceans to capture carbon won't work - April 26, 2007
Biopact: WWF condemns Planktos Inc. iron-seeding plan in the Galapagos - June 27, 2007
Bioapct: Scientists propose new geoengineering option: increasing ocean's alkalinity to soak up more carbon dioxide - November 19, 2007
Biopact: IPCC to warn of 'abrupt' climate change: emergency case for carbon-negative biofuels kicks in - November 16, 2007
Biopact: Scientists propose artificial trees to scrub CO2 out of the atmosphere - but the real thing could be smarter - October 04, 2007
Biopact: A quick look at 'fourth generation' biofuels - October 08, 2007
Article continues
posted by Biopact team at 10:38 PM 0 comments links to this post