NFC to invest up to $80 million in reforestation-for-energy project in Uganda
Commercial tree planting is not a conventional type of business in Uganda but the New Forest Company (NFC), a UK-based firm, is signalling the growing attractiveness of the sector by announcing an investment that could reach $80 million over the coming years. The reforestation projects will supply woody biomass for power generation as well as timber for the construction industry. The concept shows that, contrary to the opinion of some bioenergy adversaries, biomass production is most often not based on deforestation, but rather on the opposite: reforestation and afforestation.
Deforestation is a growing problem in Uganda, with poor households relying on highly inefficient energy technologies for heating and cooking - burning wood fuels on open fires, leading to a loss of 90% of the energy contained in the fuel. A transition to modern energy would greatly reduce deforestation rates. A Ugandan government forest policy says because of this reliance on woodfuel and inefficient technologies, the country needs to recover 20 per cent of its lost forest cover, which equates to about 250,000 hectares of new trees to be planted by 2015. This opportunity, combined with rising commercial energy costs, the efficiency of modern biomass power production, and the growing related market for timber, prompted NFC to launch a massive investment campaign since 2005, expecting to raise 4.3 million trees, mainly Pine and Eucalyptus species.
During a tour of a plantation in Mubende by officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Uganda Investment Authority, NFC's CEO Julian Ozanne said that in a first step, the company is to invest $30 million in plantations in Mubende, Bugiri and Kiboga. The target there is to plant 65,000 acres of land, mainly for the timber market. So far 7,250 acres have received trees. This year, an additional $11 million should bring the total to 15,000 acres in the three districts.
In the meantime, NFC is working with British energy company Aldwych International which has already received a licence from the energy ministry to put in place a 50MW biomass power plant. NFC's plantations would supply the green electricity plant, pushing up its total investment to between $70 - $80 million over the next 10 years. For this project to succeed, the company needs to obtain a power purchase agreement from the government, so that the plant will be connected to the national grid.
Ozanne urged the government to support the project in order to diversify energy sources and to stop relying on hydro power only, which has become an unreliable source of energy. According to NFC, renewable biomass power offers reliable baseload energy and creates considerably more jobs than hydropower.
According to Meredith Bates, the company's corporate responsibility manager, NFC has so far created 1,600 jobs and forecasts another 2,500 in the next five years, operates in three districts of Mubende, Bugiri and Kiboga. According to Bates, the workforce is highly motivated and productive, for many of the rural workers and contractors this is their first real job so there is considerable training required to help make the transition to full time employment.
Bates added that the NFC's reforestation projects are underwritten by carbon credits, which require sound environmental land use management in compliance with the Clean Development Mechanism:
energy :: sustainability :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: forestry :: plantation :: timber :: biomass :: efficiency :: carbon credits :: reforestation :: afforestation :: eucalyptus :: Uganda ::
Planting is the first step being undertaken to create volume. In the next phase, NFC will build a processing plant that will include a modern saw mill and a pole-treatment factory. The development of supply chains for biomass as a fuel will be developed later when the government approves the power project.
During the tour in Mubende, IMF's senior resident representative, Abebe Aemro Selassie, said the company had mobilised private equity for a sustainable forestry project. "This is a positive development that has created jobs", he said.
Picture: reforestation and afforestation through eucalyptus plantations; the trees grow fast and yield high amounts of biomass that could become crucial for developing countries making a transition to more efficient energy systems.
References:
New Vision (Kampala - via AllAfrica): Forest Company to Invest $30m - January 28, 2008.
The Monitor (Kampala - via AllAfrica): Tree Planting Promises Hefty Fruits for UK Firm - January 28, 2008.
Article continues
Deforestation is a growing problem in Uganda, with poor households relying on highly inefficient energy technologies for heating and cooking - burning wood fuels on open fires, leading to a loss of 90% of the energy contained in the fuel. A transition to modern energy would greatly reduce deforestation rates. A Ugandan government forest policy says because of this reliance on woodfuel and inefficient technologies, the country needs to recover 20 per cent of its lost forest cover, which equates to about 250,000 hectares of new trees to be planted by 2015. This opportunity, combined with rising commercial energy costs, the efficiency of modern biomass power production, and the growing related market for timber, prompted NFC to launch a massive investment campaign since 2005, expecting to raise 4.3 million trees, mainly Pine and Eucalyptus species.
During a tour of a plantation in Mubende by officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Uganda Investment Authority, NFC's CEO Julian Ozanne said that in a first step, the company is to invest $30 million in plantations in Mubende, Bugiri and Kiboga. The target there is to plant 65,000 acres of land, mainly for the timber market. So far 7,250 acres have received trees. This year, an additional $11 million should bring the total to 15,000 acres in the three districts.
In the meantime, NFC is working with British energy company Aldwych International which has already received a licence from the energy ministry to put in place a 50MW biomass power plant. NFC's plantations would supply the green electricity plant, pushing up its total investment to between $70 - $80 million over the next 10 years. For this project to succeed, the company needs to obtain a power purchase agreement from the government, so that the plant will be connected to the national grid.
Ozanne urged the government to support the project in order to diversify energy sources and to stop relying on hydro power only, which has become an unreliable source of energy. According to NFC, renewable biomass power offers reliable baseload energy and creates considerably more jobs than hydropower.
According to Meredith Bates, the company's corporate responsibility manager, NFC has so far created 1,600 jobs and forecasts another 2,500 in the next five years, operates in three districts of Mubende, Bugiri and Kiboga. According to Bates, the workforce is highly motivated and productive, for many of the rural workers and contractors this is their first real job so there is considerable training required to help make the transition to full time employment.
Bates added that the NFC's reforestation projects are underwritten by carbon credits, which require sound environmental land use management in compliance with the Clean Development Mechanism:
energy :: sustainability :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: forestry :: plantation :: timber :: biomass :: efficiency :: carbon credits :: reforestation :: afforestation :: eucalyptus :: Uganda ::
Our business mixes commercial plantation forestry with protection and regeneration of indigenous tree species and the promotion of bio-diversity and environmentally sustainable land use management. - Meredith Bates, NFC corporate responsibility managerBesides carbon credits, timber plantations offer attractive rates of return in the order of 15-18 percent (more with well grown Eucalypts), says Bates. Besides the bioenergy market, Uganda's rapidly growing construction industry is pushing up demand for timber and other timber products providing a huge market for tree dealers and timber vendors. The regional market in Southern Sudan and Rwanda will also come in hardy to provide wider and new markets.
Planting is the first step being undertaken to create volume. In the next phase, NFC will build a processing plant that will include a modern saw mill and a pole-treatment factory. The development of supply chains for biomass as a fuel will be developed later when the government approves the power project.
During the tour in Mubende, IMF's senior resident representative, Abebe Aemro Selassie, said the company had mobilised private equity for a sustainable forestry project. "This is a positive development that has created jobs", he said.
Picture: reforestation and afforestation through eucalyptus plantations; the trees grow fast and yield high amounts of biomass that could become crucial for developing countries making a transition to more efficient energy systems.
References:
New Vision (Kampala - via AllAfrica): Forest Company to Invest $30m - January 28, 2008.
The Monitor (Kampala - via AllAfrica): Tree Planting Promises Hefty Fruits for UK Firm - January 28, 2008.
Article continues
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Carbon-negative energy revolution a step closer: Carbon8 Systems to capture CO2 from biomass through carbonation
Renewables like solar, wind, hydropower or even a source like nuclear energy are all 'carbon neutral' at best. That is: they do not add new emissions to the atmosphere and have a relatively small carbon footprint over their lifecycle. But this is a weak result compared to carbon-negative bioenergy. Socalled 'Bio-energy with carbon capture' (BECS) systems go much further: they actively take CO2 from the past out of the atmosphere. This is so because as biomass grows it stores atmospheric CO2 in its tissue. When the biomass is combusted for electricity generation or transformed into a decarbonized fuel like biohydrogen, and consequently the CO2 resulting from this transformation is captured and stored, the result is a negative emissions balance.
This makes such bioenergy systems by far the most important tool in the climate fight. Table 1 (click to enlarge) shows the difference in emissions between electricity from fossil fuels, from carbon-neutral renewables like wind or solar, and from carbon-negative biomass. Whereas a kWh of coal-based electricity generates up to 1000g/CO2, and one based on photovoltaics around 100g/COeq, a kWh of carbon-negative bio-electricity yields minus 1030 g/CO2. In other words: the hyper-green energy removes the climate destructive gas from the atmosphere.
There are two main pathways to capture and store carbon from bioenergy systems. One is high tech and involves capturing CO2 from biomass power stations through a set of complex techniques, after which the greenhouse gas is transported via pipeline or ship and sequestered in geological formations such as depleted oil & gas fields, or saline acquifers. The other technique is based on storing biochar in soils, which could lead to a highly beneficial cycle of improved agriculture.
Carbonation
But now, a third option is emerging: capturing CO2 from power plants, gasification based biohydrogen reactors or waste incineration facilities and using it as a feedstock to produce limestone. Dr Paula Carey and Dr Colin Hills, both geologists from Greenwich, created Carbon8 Systems in 2006. They are commercialising the technology. (A competitor would be Carbon Sciences, Inc. but it currently only focuses on coal).
Dr Paula Carey says the process is in fact very simple and known as carbonation. Industrial waste, such as the ash obtained from municipal incinerators, or biomass ash from power plants, contains calcium silicates which react vigorously with CO2 to produce calcium carbonate, or limestone as it is more commonly known. This process occurs naturally but because of the relatively low concentrations of CO2 in the air the reaction can take years.
The researchers developed a process based around the mixture of calcium silicates, water and the right concentration of CO2 that speeds the reaction up so it takes only about 15 minutes. The result comes in the form of limestone pellets (picture), ready for use as a raw material in other industrial sectors (construction materials, cosmetics, etc). Carbon 8 Systems has a certain degree of patent coverage for the process and is now working to commercialise the technology. (Note: no word yet about the energy intensity of the process).
Asked whether the carbonation technique could also be applied to CO2 from biomass energy plants, Dr Carey replied:
Limestone and acid soils
Biopact would add that with the technique a new and highly interesting synergy could be emerging for developing countries in the tropics and the subtropics. As is well known, vast tracts of land in Asia, Africa and Latin America are dominated by highly problematic acid soils, often burdened by aluminum toxicity, which is known to result in poor agricultural yields. Around half the world's arable land suffers from acidity. However, there is a simple technique to increase the Ph of these soils: adding lime. However, many developing countries have a lack of this resource, which limits the scope for this most basic intervention.
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: biohydrogen :: bio-electricity :: carbon capture and storage :: bio-energy with carbon storage :: carbon-neutral :: carbon-negative :: negative emissions :: carbonation :: acid soils :: aluminum toxicity :: global warming :: climate change ::
The importance of lime for tropical agriculture should not be underestimated. In the 1970s and 1980s, Brazil, for example, based most of its agricultural zoning and planning efforts on the presence of lime deposits. Lime availability was seen as the key limiting factor and determined where which type of crops could be grown. The same logic is true for most other tropical countries with vast acid soil resources.
Other applications
According to Dr Carey other applications are for incinerators that produce CO2 from the chimney while also producing the ash needed to capture much of that CO2. Applying the technology to an incinerator means you would not only cut carbon emissions, the process would also treat the waste ash and make it less hazardous and the net result is limestone which can be reused as aggregate for the construction industry.
When it comes to the reduction in carbon emissions that could be achieved with this technology, Carbon 8 Systems estimates that 70,000 tonnes of ash would absorb between 10,000 and 20,000 tonnes of CO2. Beyond that the only constraint on how widely you could apply the technology would be the availability of the ash and the demand for the aggregate.
Commercialisation of the carbonation process is being worked on. The biggest challenge is capturing the CO2 from the chimney, though carbon capture systems for doing that are absolutely feasible and the company's scientists are working on developing the technology. When it comes to using the process to just treat the hazardous ash they can simply use bottled CO2. The researchers conducted a field trial last week using this process, following up on trials they did several years ago. They are also working with a waste company to get a full pilot using bottled CO2 up and running in the next two to three months.
Realistically speaking Carbon 8 Systems is thinking in terms of saving millions of tonnes rather than tens of millions of tonnes for the UK, due to the limitations in terms of availability of ash and demand for the end product. But the potential application of the technology is still huge, they think. It would be expensive retrofitting any system to existing incinerators, but it is expected that more incinerators and biomass power plants will be built.
Dr Carey is the commercial director of Carbon8 Systems as well as an academic a the University of Greenwich. She has a research background in geology and natural materials for the construction industry.
Map: Aluminum toxicity in acidic soils limits crop production in as much as half the world's arable land, mostly in developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America. Credit: Cornell University Chronicle Online.
References:
VNU Net: To capture CO2, just add calcium silicate - January 29, 2008.
FAO Problem Soils Database: Acid Soils.
Article continues
posted by Biopact team at 5:25 PM 3 comments links to this post