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.
Vernonia oil and African green chemicals
Quicknote bioenergy crops
Stephanie Kung works for Worldwatch, which provides "Independent research for an environmentally sustainable and socially just society". The following article of her hand appeared on Worldchanging, a green think tank. It fits nicely into our broader view of developing countries leapfrogging towards an integrated bioenergy future.
In July, the government of Ethiopia signed an agreement allowing a British biotechnology firm to commercialize the oilseed plant vernonia (Vernonia galamensis (Cass.) Less.) as a renewable source of industrial chemicals. Long dismissed by Ethiopian farmers as a nuisance shrub, vernonia, also known as ironweed, is considered a potential replacement for petroleum in a variety of industrial uses. The plant’s shiny black seeds produce an oil rich in epoxy fatty acids, which can be used to manufacture innovative bio-based paints, adhesives, and plastic products.
Though it has been grown successfully in a variety of locations, vernonia thrives naturally within 20 degrees of the Equator, and has been particularly prolific in Ethiopia. The new commercialization deal, which took place under the auspices of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity's Access and Benefit Sharing Agreement, gives the British company Vernique Biotech access to the plant for the next 10 years. In exchange, the Ethiopian government will receive royalty payments and profit shares, while hundreds of local farmers will have an opportunity to boost their earnings by growing the oilseed on land too poor for food crops.
Studies show that use of vernonia-derived oils has the potential to significantly offset petroleum use and related fossil-fuel emissions. In 1992, the United States consumed roughly 227 kilograms of petroleum per person to produce plastics and industrial petrochemicals; according to scientists, replacing those feedstocks with vernonia oil could have reduced emissions by up to 73 million kilograms annually. In 2004, the U.S. industrial sector consumed about 5.1 million barrels of oil per day, or 23 percent of the nation’s total. The naturally epoxidized vernonia oil is also being considered for pharmaceutical uses, such as alleviating psoriasis.
Little information is available on yields or cultural management of vernonia. A few large production fields of short-day accessions have been grown in Zimbabwe and other African and Central American countries near the equator, where seed yields from 1345 kg / ha in 1985 to 2494 kg / ha in 1987 have been reported from those countries. In Eritrea, the crop yielded an average 873kg/ha of seeds during a more recent field trial.
More information:
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: green chemistry :: vernonia :: oil :: Ethiopia ::
Stephanie Kung works for Worldwatch, which provides "Independent research for an environmentally sustainable and socially just society". The following article of her hand appeared on Worldchanging, a green think tank. It fits nicely into our broader view of developing countries leapfrogging towards an integrated bioenergy future.
In July, the government of Ethiopia signed an agreement allowing a British biotechnology firm to commercialize the oilseed plant vernonia (Vernonia galamensis (Cass.) Less.) as a renewable source of industrial chemicals. Long dismissed by Ethiopian farmers as a nuisance shrub, vernonia, also known as ironweed, is considered a potential replacement for petroleum in a variety of industrial uses. The plant’s shiny black seeds produce an oil rich in epoxy fatty acids, which can be used to manufacture innovative bio-based paints, adhesives, and plastic products.Though it has been grown successfully in a variety of locations, vernonia thrives naturally within 20 degrees of the Equator, and has been particularly prolific in Ethiopia. The new commercialization deal, which took place under the auspices of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity's Access and Benefit Sharing Agreement, gives the British company Vernique Biotech access to the plant for the next 10 years. In exchange, the Ethiopian government will receive royalty payments and profit shares, while hundreds of local farmers will have an opportunity to boost their earnings by growing the oilseed on land too poor for food crops.
Studies show that use of vernonia-derived oils has the potential to significantly offset petroleum use and related fossil-fuel emissions. In 1992, the United States consumed roughly 227 kilograms of petroleum per person to produce plastics and industrial petrochemicals; according to scientists, replacing those feedstocks with vernonia oil could have reduced emissions by up to 73 million kilograms annually. In 2004, the U.S. industrial sector consumed about 5.1 million barrels of oil per day, or 23 percent of the nation’s total. The naturally epoxidized vernonia oil is also being considered for pharmaceutical uses, such as alleviating psoriasis.
Little information is available on yields or cultural management of vernonia. A few large production fields of short-day accessions have been grown in Zimbabwe and other African and Central American countries near the equator, where seed yields from 1345 kg / ha in 1985 to 2494 kg / ha in 1987 have been reported from those countries. In Eritrea, the crop yielded an average 873kg/ha of seeds during a more recent field trial.
More information:
- Interesting info on the quality of the oil: Purdue University, Center for New Crops & Plant Products: Variability in Oil and Vernolic Acid Contents in the New Vernonia galamensis Collection from East Africa
- Vernonia galamensis profile at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service Database.
- Profile of vernonia at the Industrial Crops Research website of the Arid Land Agricultural Research Center.
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: green chemistry :: vernonia :: oil :: Ethiopia :: 
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