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    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. Dnevnik - Feb. 20, 2007.

    Hungary's BHD Hõerõmû Zrt. is to build a 35 billion Forint (€138/US$182 million) commercial biomass-fired power plant with a maximum output of 49.9 MW in Szerencs (northeast Hungary). Portfolio.hu - Feb. 20, 2007.

    Tonight at 9pm, BBC Two will be showing a program on geo-engineering techniques to 'save' the planet from global warming. Five of the world's top scientists propose five radical scientific inventions which could stop climate change dead in its tracks. The ideas include: a giant sunshade in space to filter out the sun's rays and help cool us down; forests of artificial trees that would breath in carbon dioxide and stop the green house effect and a fleet futuristic yachts that will shoot salt water into the clouds thickening them and cooling the planet. BBC News - Feb. 19, 2007.

    Archer Daniels Midland, the largest U.S. ethanol producer, is planning to open a biodiesel plant in Indonesia with Wilmar International Ltd. this year and a wholly owned biodiesel plant in Brazil before July, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The Brazil plant is expected to be the nation's largest, the paper said. Worldwide, the company projects a fourfold rise in biodiesel production over the next five years. ADM was not immediately available to comment. Reuters - Feb. 16, 2007.

    Finnish engineering firm Pöyry Oyj has been awarded contracts by San Carlos Bioenergy Inc. to provide services for the first bioethanol plant in the Philippines. The aggregate contract value is EUR 10 million. The plant is to be build in the Province of San Carlos on the north-eastern tip of Negros Island. The plant is expected to deliver 120,000 liters/day of bioethanol and 4 MW of excess power to the grid. Kauppalehti Online - Feb. 15, 2007.

    In order to reduce fuel costs, a Mukono-based flower farm which exports to Europe, is building its own biodiesel plant, based on using Jatropha curcas seeds. It estimates the fuel will cut production costs by up to 20%. New Vision (Kampala, Uganda) - Feb. 12, 2007.

    The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has decided to use 10% biodiesel in its fleet of public buses. The world's largest city is served by the Toei Bus System, which is used by some 570,000 people daily. Digital World Tokyo - Feb. 12, 2007.

    Fearing lack of electricity supply in South Africa and a price tag on CO2, WSP Group SA is investing in a biomass power plant that will replace coal in the Letaba Citrus juicing plant which is located in Tzaneen. Mining Weekly - Feb. 8, 2007.

    In what it calls an important addition to its global R&D capabilities, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) is to build a new bioenergy research center in Hamburg, Germany. World Grain - Feb. 5, 2007.

    EthaBlog's Henrique Oliveira interviews leading Brazilian biofuels consultant Marcelo Coelho who offers insights into the (foreign) investment dynamics in the sector, the history of Brazilian ethanol and the relationship between oil price trends and biofuels. EthaBlog - Feb. 2, 2007.

    The government of Taiwan has announced its renewable energy target: 12% of all energy should come from renewables by 2020. The plan is expected to revitalise Taiwan's agricultural sector and to boost its nascent biomass industry. China Post - Feb. 2, 2007.

    Production at Cantarell, the world's second biggest oil field, declined by 500,000 barrels or 25% last year. This virtual collapse is unfolding much faster than projections from Mexico's state-run oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos. Wall Street Journal - Jan. 30, 2007.

    Dubai-based and AIM listed Teejori Ltd. has entered into an agreement to invest €6 million to acquire a 16.7% interest in Bekon, which developed two proprietary technologies enabling dry-fermentation of biomass. Both technologies allow it to design, establish and operate biogas plants in a highly efficient way. Dry-Fermentation offers significant advantages to the existing widely used wet fermentation process of converting biomass to biogas. Ame Info - Jan. 22, 2007.

    Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited is to build a biofuel production plant in the tribal belt of Banswara, Rajasthan, India. The petroleum company has acquired 20,000 hectares of low value land in the district, which it plans to commit to growing jatropha and other biofuel crops. The company's chairman said HPCL was also looking for similar wasteland in the state of Chhattisgarh. Zee News - Jan. 15, 2007.

    The Zimbabwean national police begins planting jatropha for a pilot project that must result in a daily production of 1000 liters of biodiesel. The Herald (Harare), Via AllAfrica - Jan. 12, 2007.

    In order to meet its Kyoto obligations and to cut dependence on oil, Japan has started importing biofuels from Brazil and elsewhere. And even though the country has limited local bioenergy potential, its Agriculture Ministry will begin a search for natural resources, including farm products and their residues, that can be used to make biofuels in Japan. To this end, studies will be conducted at 900 locations nationwide over a three-year period. The Japan Times - Jan. 12, 2007.

    Chrysler's chief economist Van Jolissaint has launched an arrogant attack on "quasi-hysterical Europeans" and their attitudes to global warming, calling the Stern Review 'dubious'. The remarks illustrate the yawning gap between opinions on climate change among Europeans and Americans, but they also strengthen the view that announcements by US car makers and legislators about the development of green vehicles are nothing more than window dressing. Today, the EU announced its comprehensive energy policy for the 21st century, with climate change at the center of it. BBC News - Jan. 10, 2007.

    The new Canadian government is investing $840,000 into BioMatera Inc. a biotech company that develops industrial biopolymers (such as PHA) that have wide-scale applications in the plastics, farmaceutical and cosmetics industries. Plant-based biopolymers such as PHA are biodegradable and renewable. Government of Canada - Jan. 9, 2007.


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Friday, November 03, 2006

Biofuels industry spurring jobs in wide array of fields

One of the main social advantages of the rapidly growing bioenergy and biofuels industry is that it opens a new stream of direct and indirect jobs, often in rural regions where unemployment is a major problem. In the developing world, the biofuels industry is labor-intensive, especially when it comes to the cultivation, harvesting and processing of feedstocks. This is why it offers an opportunity for job creation, poverty alleviation and social development amongst the rural poor.

But ethanol and biodiesel investments do not only create employment for farmers. They are just one segment of the long production chain. Job opportunities for highly skilled labor in a diversity of fields emerge as a result of these investments as well.

We want to look at two examples of this process. The first comes from Malaysia, where the biofuels boom is reviving the chemical engineering sector, previously troubled by stagnation. The other comes from Iowa, in the US, where jobs emerge in genetics and crop engineering, construction and logistics, process engineering and the life sciences. Interestingly, both examples demonstrate that before investors can even benefit from the first drop of biodiesel or ethanol, process engineers, crop scientists and civil engineers who design, build and test biofuel plants are already cashing in:
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Malaysia
After a decade of fierce competition and grim times, chemical engineers in Malaysia's edible oil industry are smiling again. This is because the current biodiesel investment frenzy is fuelling growth into their long saturated industry.

For many years, process engineers like De Smet (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, JJ-Lurgi Engineering Sdn Bhd, Lipochem (M) Sdn Bhd and Oiltek Sdn Bhd have been and are still building edible oil refineries to mainly facilitate cooking oil and soap-making factories.

"Process engineers are facilitators of downstream businesses in the palm oil industry. Without this group of people, it will be difficult for investors to make new products cost-effectively and profitably," Oiltek managing director Wong Seong said.

Established in 1981, Oiltek is best known among process engineering circles for its tall and thin tube-like crystalisers used for oil fractionation, believed to be more efficient than the short and wide foreign crystalisers that were common in the early days of the refining industry.

In the last two decades, Oiltek has sold its high- technology equipment and serviced customers in China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt, Congo and Nigeria. "From constructing refineries for manufacturers to make cooking oil and detergent from crude palm oil, we have moved into more sophisticated processes to make biodiesel plants," said Wong, who has had 35 years experience dealing with downstream products in the palm oil industry.

As the world embraces more usage of biodiesel as renewable fuel in the transport and energy sectors, process engineers are gaining more business, constructing biodiesel plants. Wong said that of the seven units of biodiesel plants Oiltek is participating in South-East Asia and Central America, amounting to some US$50 million (RM183 million), three are located in Malaysia.

Palm-based biodiesel remains in liquid form in Malaysia's hot weather, but it thickens and becomes jelly-like as the climate gets colder. To ensure palm diesel remains fluid and usable during winter in temperate countries, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) came up with a different technology to make winter grade fuel.

So far, local players Lipochem and Oiltek are the only two licence holders of the MPOB's knowhow on winter and normal (summer) grade palm diesel. "We've already completed the winter biodiesel plant for MPOB/carotino in August and are now working on two more for MPOB joint venture partners on Carey Island and in Port Klang in Selangor. These two plants should be ready by mid-2007," Wong said.

A bigger process engineer in Malaysia, using Italian and Belgian technology, is De Smet (Malaysia). Currently, the group has booked in jobs worth in excess of US$80 million (RM292 million) to build 11 biodiesel plants in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.

"Our order book is growing," De Smet Malaysia managing director Khoo Kiak Kern said. Desmet Ballestra Group, an edible oil refining technology provider, sees Malaysia as its biggest market for constructing biodiesel plants. Among its clients are Vance Bioenergy Sdn Bhd in Pasir Gudang, Zoop Sdn Bhd in Shah Alam, SPC Biodiesel Sdn Bhd in POIC Lahad Datu, Kulim Bhd in Tanjung Langsat and Jupiter Biofuels Sdn Bhd in Kuantan.

"We've completed our first biodiesel plant in Pasir Gudang, Johor, for our client Vance Technology Sdn Bhd," Khoo said. "The next two biodiesel plants in Peninsular Malaysia are due to be completed by the year-end," he added.

Another player which has established itself in Malaysia's oleochemical industry is Singapore-based JJ-Lurgi Engineering Sdn Bhd. An equal joint venture between Jebsen & Jessen (SEA) Pte Ltd and Lurgi AG, JJ-Jurgi has been designing, building and selling edible oil refineries in Malaysia since the early 1980s.

Lurgi AG is currently the market leader in constructing biodiesel plants in Europe. "The reliability of German process engineering methods is proven. Lurgi in process engineering is like Mercedes in the automotive industry," JJ-Lurgi business development manager Connie Lo said.

In Malaysia, the company currently captures 80 per cent market share in the construction of oleochemical plants. "Biodiesel is not new to us. In fact, methyl ester is intermediate to making fatty alchohol," she said. Lately, JJ-Lurgi has been receiving a lot of enquiries from China and South-East Asian countries.

"Although we have been supplying biodiesel plants for quite a few years now, the enquiries in the last 10 months have been phenomenal. Process engineering is experiencing tremendous growth in this region," she said. Curently, JJ-Lurgi is building a 60,000- tonne-per-year biodiesel plant for Lereno Sdn Bhd in Sitiawan, Perak, and Lo said the structure should be ready for operation by March 2007. Over in Sabah, it is building a 200,00-tonne-per- year biodiesel plant for Zurex Corp Sdn Bhd in POIC Lahad Datu.


Iowa
When Greg Derscheid and Randy Retleff grew up on their families' Wright County farms, they never imagined working in an ethanol plant. Neither did Julie Rohrdanz, another rural Iowan. "I had visions that some day I would be a vet," said Rohrdanz, who grew up on an acreage near Lake View in Sac County.

Ethanol was in its infancy when they were in school. Since 2000, the number of U.S. ethanol plants has doubled to more than 100, with more than 30 additional plants under construction. Derscheid, Retleff and Rohrdanz are employed by Lincolnway Energy, a $90 million project located just west of Nevada that can produce up to 50 million gallons of ethanol annually. It's one of 25 plants in Iowa, the leading ethanol producer, with 10 more being built.

Economists disagree on the ripple effects of an ethanol plant. John Urbanchuk, an economist at LECG Corp., a California-based consultant, says a 100 million-gallon ethanol plant can generate nearly 1,600 jobs across several industries. Other studies calculate a much smaller impact, but agree that the industry promises job growth in a wide array of fields, including crop genetics, engineering, life sciences and construction.

"You're not going to replace a Maytag overnight, but every 50 or 60 jobs is a step in the right direction," said Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association in Johnston. "Call any trucking firm in Iowa and see if they're hiring truck drivers, and the answer will be, 'Yes.' There are a lot of reasons for that, but the biofuels industry is a big part of it."

Each day, thousands of semi-trailer trucks deliver grain and other products to the plants, while tanker trucks and railcars haul fuel to market. At the same time, Shaw and others worry whether Iowa will have the necessary work force to meet its needs. "Finding qualified people is definitely a challenge," Shaw said.

Industry leaders plan to push lawmakers next year to increase public funding for job training in Iowa, and they intend to campaign for biofuels training to be a beneficiary.

So far, biofuel manufacturers generally have been able to find the workers they need. Before Lincolnway Energy opened last spring, for instance, 350 people applied for 35 jobs, said Rick Brehm, president and general manager of the plant.

Applicants included people from other states and former Iowans who wanted to return to their home state. Lincolnway workers were employed in various industries before joining the company.

Derscheid is a high school graduate who worked as a die caster and machine operator in factories before going to work for Lincolnway. Now, as part of a team of four people, he oversees the "cooking" process at the plant.

Retleff worked at a farmer-owned cooperative before earning a business degree in 1997 from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.

At Lincolnway, he is the team leader in the plant's computerized control room, helping monitor the production process. Among other tasks, he coordinates percentages of corn and enzymes used in ethanol production, as well as how yeast performs.
Batches vary. It's like baking bread, Retleff said. "Every loaf of bread doesn't look the same, does it?" he said.

After earning a bachelor's degree in dairy science in 1995 from Iowa State University in Ames, Rohrdanz worked as a chemist, first for a soybean processor, then for Dana Corp. At Lincolnway, she manages the laboratory, which monitors the quality of water used and expelled by the plant, as well as the condition of materials going through the manufacturing process.

She also is in charge of safety and environmental management, monitoring air emissions, among other things. Rohrdanz and her co-workers are upbeat about job opportunities in Iowa's biofuels business.

"I think that the ethanol industry is so full of opportunity right now," Rohrdanz said. "People who have any experience or education in this area at all, I think they'll be very much in demand. ... I've seen a lot of young people in positions at ethanol plants."

1 Comments:

TS Toh said...

Dear Sir,

Lipochem has already supplied two operating 60,000 TPY palm biodiesel plants. One is in for Carotino in Malaysia ( operating since July 2006 ) and one for Enertec in Korea ( operating since Dec 2006 ). One 60,000 TPY & one 120,000 TPY biodiesel plant will be operational by July 2007 - both plants are in Malaysia. One more 120,000 TPY plant is scheduled to be in operation by end 2007.

Mr. T.S.Toh
General Manager
Lipochem
[email protected]

6:58 AM  

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