Indian company proposes to invest $150 million in Suriname's biofuel and bioenergy sector
India’s Enhanced Biofuel Technologies (EBT) has proposed plans to the Suriname government to invest up to US$150 million in bioenergy, the Surinamese Council of Ministers disclosed this week. EBT has submitted a business plan to the government covering 7 years in developing new crops for the production of biofuels.
Meanwhile, the Ministries of Agriculture [*Dutch], Natural Resources and Spatial Zoning, Land and Forest Management are reviewing the proposals, while a Memorandum of Understanding is being drafted.
“If the government decides to cooperate with this company and the project is successful, Suriname will play a major role in the field of bioenergy in the region,” said the cabinet in a press release.
'Social sustainability'
EBT is aming at reducing dependency on fossil fuels and relieving pressure on the environment by growing perennial energy crops and by utilizing biomass waste streams from farming comunities to produce green electricity. Most importantly, it has created a social sustainability program that should ensure feedstock growers and communities benefit from biofuel production.
The integrated social sustainability scheme is built around a stream of byproducts and coproducts flowing back to the communities, either in a material form (e.g. livestock feed, biofertiliser), in the form of energy (e.g. electricity from biomass residues) or in an immaterial form (sales of bioproducts) (schematic, click to enlarge).
The strategy of EBT is to grow Jatropha curcas in a series of tropical and subtropical countries, like Suriname, for the global market. Within 5 years time, the company plans to begin to make an impact on replacing rapeseed oil based biodiesel in Europe and North America (schematic, click to enlarge):
energy :: sustainability :: ethanol :: biodiesel :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: social sustainability :: Suriname ::
EBT is a commercially-driven business that addresses the pressing global issues of the scarcity of fuel supply, climate change, poverty reduction and sustainable development. The company is building a global production, supply and distribution chain for the high volume production of commercialized renewable, energy efficient and reduced carbon emission fuels.
Energy production on a global scale will require the sourcing of vast quantities of crude vegetable oil, the company says on its website. EBT has negotiated the procurement of rapeseed, palm oil and soya bean, while creating projects to increase the growth of energy crops in rural communities.
EBT fuels are targeted at industries that are amongst the highest producers of carbon emissions and other toxins, including cement, mining, and power generation.
According to EBT, crops such as sunflower, rapeseed and tree-borne oil seeds like Jatropha Curcas provide rich biomass and nutrients for soil whilst combating degradation of land, a problem affecting millions of hectares of land world wide, particularly in the subtropical zones which will be the focus of the agricultural extension kit’s deployment.
In 2007, EBT will begin the process of delivering the company to market in the UK, in India and alternative energy development markets. For the past two years the company has continually invested into the development of a global platform of corperate endevour in India, South East Asia, Africa, the Middle East, USA, Canada, UK, EU, South America and the Caribbean.
Besides biofuels from energy crops, EBT is researching the production of biohydrogen from algae.
References:
Caribbean News Network: Indian company proposes million-dollar bio-energy investment in Suriname - July 13, 2007
Government of Suriname: Ministerie van Planning en Ontwikkelingssamenwerking [*Dutch].
Government of Suriname: Ministerie van Landbouw, Veeteelt en Visserij [*Dutch]
Article continues
Meanwhile, the Ministries of Agriculture [*Dutch], Natural Resources and Spatial Zoning, Land and Forest Management are reviewing the proposals, while a Memorandum of Understanding is being drafted.
“If the government decides to cooperate with this company and the project is successful, Suriname will play a major role in the field of bioenergy in the region,” said the cabinet in a press release.
'Social sustainability'
EBT is aming at reducing dependency on fossil fuels and relieving pressure on the environment by growing perennial energy crops and by utilizing biomass waste streams from farming comunities to produce green electricity. Most importantly, it has created a social sustainability program that should ensure feedstock growers and communities benefit from biofuel production.
The integrated social sustainability scheme is built around a stream of byproducts and coproducts flowing back to the communities, either in a material form (e.g. livestock feed, biofertiliser), in the form of energy (e.g. electricity from biomass residues) or in an immaterial form (sales of bioproducts) (schematic, click to enlarge).
The strategy of EBT is to grow Jatropha curcas in a series of tropical and subtropical countries, like Suriname, for the global market. Within 5 years time, the company plans to begin to make an impact on replacing rapeseed oil based biodiesel in Europe and North America (schematic, click to enlarge):
energy :: sustainability :: ethanol :: biodiesel :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: social sustainability :: Suriname ::
EBT is a commercially-driven business that addresses the pressing global issues of the scarcity of fuel supply, climate change, poverty reduction and sustainable development. The company is building a global production, supply and distribution chain for the high volume production of commercialized renewable, energy efficient and reduced carbon emission fuels.
Energy production on a global scale will require the sourcing of vast quantities of crude vegetable oil, the company says on its website. EBT has negotiated the procurement of rapeseed, palm oil and soya bean, while creating projects to increase the growth of energy crops in rural communities.
EBT fuels are targeted at industries that are amongst the highest producers of carbon emissions and other toxins, including cement, mining, and power generation.
According to EBT, crops such as sunflower, rapeseed and tree-borne oil seeds like Jatropha Curcas provide rich biomass and nutrients for soil whilst combating degradation of land, a problem affecting millions of hectares of land world wide, particularly in the subtropical zones which will be the focus of the agricultural extension kit’s deployment.
In 2007, EBT will begin the process of delivering the company to market in the UK, in India and alternative energy development markets. For the past two years the company has continually invested into the development of a global platform of corperate endevour in India, South East Asia, Africa, the Middle East, USA, Canada, UK, EU, South America and the Caribbean.
Besides biofuels from energy crops, EBT is researching the production of biohydrogen from algae.
References:
Caribbean News Network: Indian company proposes million-dollar bio-energy investment in Suriname - July 13, 2007
Government of Suriname: Ministerie van Planning en Ontwikkelingssamenwerking [*Dutch].
Government of Suriname: Ministerie van Landbouw, Veeteelt en Visserij [*Dutch]
Article continues
Friday, July 13, 2007
Market study tracks global boom in biogas, Germany technology leader
The study shows that over the past few years, the biogas market has been growing at a rate of 20 to 30 percent annually, depending on the country. The study is the first analysis of the global market for biogas plants in 50 countries, projecting future potentials and developments to 2030, with a focus on the development of new technologies and drivers of worldwide competition.
Germany as a technology leader reached investment levels of around €700 million in 2006 with 400 companies involved in segments of the sector and 100 companies offering the whole value chain. Export of biogas related technologies and services is between 10 and 15 percent. The production of biomethane is Germany's fastest growing renewables sector, outpacing both wind, solar and other types of biomass use (earlier post).
In Germany alone, 900 new plants were built in 2006, reaching a total of 3,600. By 2020, the market size in the country is expected to reach €7.5 billion for plants, with 30 percent coming from exports. Some 85,000 full and direct jobs will be created in the sector in Germany.
In Europe, biogas is being developed on a large scale for the production of fuels for stationary power generation (to be used in natural gas plants or in fuel cells), as well as for the transport sector (earlier post and here). It is being fed into the natural gas grid on a large scale (previous post and especially here) or in dedicated pipelines supplying cities, while some are creating real biorefineries around it that deliver green specialty chemicals, fuels and power (earlier post). The green gas can be made by the anaerobic fermentation of biomass, either obtained from dedicated energy crops (such as specially bred grass species, biogas maize or sugarcane), or from industrial, municipal or agricultural waste-streams.
Of all biofuels, biogas delivers most energy per hectare of crops. It is also the least carbon intensive production path, with some biogas pathways actually delivering carbon-negative bioenergy (earlier post and here). Importantly, biogas can be integrated in carbon capture and storage systems (CCS), in a way that presents advantages over other CCS pathways (earlier post).
According to the Helmut Kaiser Consultancy report, the world market for biogas currently has a value of around €2 billion, expected to grow to €25 billion by 2020. But the competition is growing, worldwide. Even though some projections show biogas may replace all of Europe's natural gas imports from Russia by 2020 and yield up to 500 billion cubic meters per year (earlier post), the report sees an even greater potential for biomethane in the U.S. and China:
biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: natural gas :: biogas :: biomethane :: biotechnology ::
Many plants today remain low tech and easy to reproduce and design. To acquire a competitive edge, the key is knowledge in biotechnology, molecular science and optimization in the future. Biogas is part of a rapidly growing renewable energy sector, that saw investments leaping to around $100 billion in 2006 (earlier post).
According to the report, the total energy mix of the future will be more regenerative and sustainable. The generation and storage of renewable energy will be the fastest growing sector in energy market for next 20 years. The market volume of renewable energy worldwide will increase from US$ 95.8 billion in 2007 to US$ 124.4 billion in 2010 and reach US$ 198.1 billion in 2015. These figures and developments are based on the whole value chain.
Biogas power plants are a combination of anaerobic digestion systems with associated electricity generators such as gas turbines or gas engines. The electricity they produce is classified as renewable or green energy and if sold into the national grid attract subsidies.
In the last 20 years, biogas utilisation been successful in wastewater treatment plants, industrial processing applications, landfill and the agricultural sector.
The future increase use of biogas is a strong goal in most countries, not only because is it a renewable energy source but it will help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution and soil degradation and last not least it will change agriculture sectors in many countries worldwide to produce partly energy.
For a more in-depth overview of why analysts think 2007 is the year of biogas, see here.
References:
PRLog: Biogas Plant Markets boom Worldwide in Municipalities, Industry and Agriculture. Profit potential high - July 13, 2007.
Article continues
posted by Biopact team at 2:43 PM 0 comments links to this post