African Development Bank approves €10 million loan for replanting and expanding palm oil, rubber in Gabon
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a €10 million loan under its private sector window to finance Belgium's Tropical Agriculture Investment Company (Société d’Investissement pour l’Agriculture Tropicale, SIAT) for its expansion project in Gabon.
The project involves both replanting old plantations and establishing new ones with high-yielding trees (see table for an overview of current operations):
The expansion project will provide employment for an additional 520 permanent staff for field preparation, planting, harvesting oil palm fruit, and tapping rubber latex. The project will further support some 500 out-grower farmers. The project staff and out-growers will be provided regular training to enhance their skills and improve their productivity. At the national level, the project will help Gabon expand its oil palm and rubber industries and produce more value added products. It will also generate tax revenue for the state and help to generate foreign exchange earnings.
The project will contribute to diversify Gabon’s economy, which is heavily dependent on crude oil, a sector controlled by a tiny elite. The country's petroleum resources are in decline and even though Gabon has a large agricultural potential, the sector has been underinvested because of the past oil boom. Palm oil and natural rubber now offer the most immediate strategy to make Gabon less dependent on oil revenues and to prepare it for the unavoidable post-oil era. Both commodities are experiencing record prices as a result of high petroleum prices (palm oil as a substitute for diesel, natural rubber which follows petroleum-derived synthetic rubber prices):
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: palm oil :: natural rubber :: rural development :: Gabon ::
Siat Gabon is actively involved in community development initiatives in the project area, providing social infrastructure such as roads, bore holes, and electricity. The company has created six modern townships dotted with over 900 houses for the workers. In addition, Siat Gabon has established “Cités cadres” with a total of 200 houses for senior staff, supervisors, and skilled workers in the project area. The project has further provided 8 primary schools in the neighboring communities with a combined enrollment of about 800 pupils. The company also operates 2 clinics, one for general healthcare and the other for maternal healthcare.
Women represent about 35% of the permanent workforce and about 40% of the seasonal workers. They are mainly involved in nursery activities, fruit collection, processing operations, quality control, and as office work. Women hold about 25% of the middle management positions in the company, including the post of Deputy MD. Women will benefit from a number of indirect jobs like retail shops and small restaurants to cater to the needs of the local population. The company operates a 'village plantation program', under which women are encouraged to cultivate food crops in the company’s plantations within the first two years of planting. This has enabled the women to ensure household food security as well as generate additional incomes.
As a result of a privatisation exercise implemented by the Government of Gabon in 2003, Siat acquired Agrogabon, Hévégab and a part of Sogadel, namely the Ranch of Nyanga. On the 5th of April, 2004, the take-over convention for the above mentioned enterprises was signed. Siat Gabon was created in order to accommodate the assets of these SOE’s.
The rubber activity of the company, located in the northern part of Gabon, consists of the Bitam Estate (2,500 ha mature rubber plantation) and the Mitzic Estate (5,500 ha of mature rubber plantation). It also includes 2,500 ha of mature outgrower plantations. At Mitzic the company operates a crump rubber factory with a daily capacity of 50 tonnes. Expansion work on estates and factory have resumed. The entire rubber production of 15,000 tonnes per annum is exported.
The oil palm activity is located around Lambarene and Makouké, and comprises 8,000 ha of mature oil palm plantation, a palm oil/palm kernel mill with a capacity of 30 tonnes ffb/hour, a soap factory of 25,000 tonnes/annum and a refinery/fractionation plant of 50,000 tonnes of oil per annum. Production is mainly meant for the domestic market.
The cattle ranch, located in the Province of Nyanga in the southern part of the country, comprises a concession of 100,000 ha. Presently, a heard of 2,000 head is meant to be increased to 20,000 over the next ten years. Cattle of the Ndama type will be imported from the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is also envisaged that approximately one third of the ranch area will be converted into an eco-tourism site.
Siat is an active member of the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
References:
SIAT: Siat in Gabon.
Africa News: Gabon: AfDB loans €10M for palm oil, rubber - September 17, 2007.
Article continues
The project involves both replanting old plantations and establishing new ones with high-yielding trees (see table for an overview of current operations):
- Oil Palm: (1) establishing a new 4,250-ha oil palm plantation and replanting 1,500-ha in Bindo; (2) replanting a 750-ha oil palm plantation in Zilé; (3) replanting a 1,000-ha oil palm plantation in Makouké; (4) modernizing a palm oil mill and palm kernel crushing plant in Makouké; (5) expanding the capacity of the palm oil refinery in Lambaréné from 50 tons per day tpd) to 75 tpd; (6) modernizing the soap manufacturing plant in Lambaréné, and (7) increasing the capacity of palm oil storage tanks in Lambaréné and Port Gentil by 3,000 tonnes.
- Rubber: (1) re-planting 4,100-ha nucleus rubber plantations in Bitam and Mitzic; (2) supporting a 2,000-ha out-grower rubber scheme; and (3) establishing a new crumb rubber line with a capacity of 40 tpd in Mitzic.
The expansion project will provide employment for an additional 520 permanent staff for field preparation, planting, harvesting oil palm fruit, and tapping rubber latex. The project will further support some 500 out-grower farmers. The project staff and out-growers will be provided regular training to enhance their skills and improve their productivity. At the national level, the project will help Gabon expand its oil palm and rubber industries and produce more value added products. It will also generate tax revenue for the state and help to generate foreign exchange earnings.
The project will contribute to diversify Gabon’s economy, which is heavily dependent on crude oil, a sector controlled by a tiny elite. The country's petroleum resources are in decline and even though Gabon has a large agricultural potential, the sector has been underinvested because of the past oil boom. Palm oil and natural rubber now offer the most immediate strategy to make Gabon less dependent on oil revenues and to prepare it for the unavoidable post-oil era. Both commodities are experiencing record prices as a result of high petroleum prices (palm oil as a substitute for diesel, natural rubber which follows petroleum-derived synthetic rubber prices):
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: palm oil :: natural rubber :: rural development :: Gabon ::
Siat Gabon is actively involved in community development initiatives in the project area, providing social infrastructure such as roads, bore holes, and electricity. The company has created six modern townships dotted with over 900 houses for the workers. In addition, Siat Gabon has established “Cités cadres” with a total of 200 houses for senior staff, supervisors, and skilled workers in the project area. The project has further provided 8 primary schools in the neighboring communities with a combined enrollment of about 800 pupils. The company also operates 2 clinics, one for general healthcare and the other for maternal healthcare.
Women represent about 35% of the permanent workforce and about 40% of the seasonal workers. They are mainly involved in nursery activities, fruit collection, processing operations, quality control, and as office work. Women hold about 25% of the middle management positions in the company, including the post of Deputy MD. Women will benefit from a number of indirect jobs like retail shops and small restaurants to cater to the needs of the local population. The company operates a 'village plantation program', under which women are encouraged to cultivate food crops in the company’s plantations within the first two years of planting. This has enabled the women to ensure household food security as well as generate additional incomes.
As a result of a privatisation exercise implemented by the Government of Gabon in 2003, Siat acquired Agrogabon, Hévégab and a part of Sogadel, namely the Ranch of Nyanga. On the 5th of April, 2004, the take-over convention for the above mentioned enterprises was signed. Siat Gabon was created in order to accommodate the assets of these SOE’s.
The rubber activity of the company, located in the northern part of Gabon, consists of the Bitam Estate (2,500 ha mature rubber plantation) and the Mitzic Estate (5,500 ha of mature rubber plantation). It also includes 2,500 ha of mature outgrower plantations. At Mitzic the company operates a crump rubber factory with a daily capacity of 50 tonnes. Expansion work on estates and factory have resumed. The entire rubber production of 15,000 tonnes per annum is exported.
The oil palm activity is located around Lambarene and Makouké, and comprises 8,000 ha of mature oil palm plantation, a palm oil/palm kernel mill with a capacity of 30 tonnes ffb/hour, a soap factory of 25,000 tonnes/annum and a refinery/fractionation plant of 50,000 tonnes of oil per annum. Production is mainly meant for the domestic market.
The cattle ranch, located in the Province of Nyanga in the southern part of the country, comprises a concession of 100,000 ha. Presently, a heard of 2,000 head is meant to be increased to 20,000 over the next ten years. Cattle of the Ndama type will be imported from the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is also envisaged that approximately one third of the ranch area will be converted into an eco-tourism site.
Siat is an active member of the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
References:
SIAT: Siat in Gabon.
Africa News: Gabon: AfDB loans €10M for palm oil, rubber - September 17, 2007.
Article continues
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Dynamotive demonstrates fast-pyrolysis plant in the presence of biofuel experts
Dynamotive's plant is the first commercial-scale facility to produce bio-oil from biomass. The pyrolysis plant comprises eight fully assembled modules and will process, once in full operation, 66,000 dry tonnes of biomass a year and have an energy output equivalent to 130,000 barrels of oil. Because of its modular design, it is seen as a key technology capable of ensuring the emergence of a truly decentralized biofuel production paradigm (earlier post).
Bio-oil is an industrial fuel produced from cellulosic biomass, either obtained from dedicated energy crops or from residues from agriculture and forestry. By rapidly heating the biomass feedstock to temperatures of 450 - 600 °C in the absence of air ('fast' or 'flash' pyrolysis), a heavy pyrolysis oil ('bio-oil') is obtained (schematic, click to enlarge). When combusted this oil produces substantially less smog-precursor nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions than conventional oil as well as little or no sulfur oxide gases (SOx), which are a prime cause of acid rain. Bio-oil and Dynamotive's 'BioOil Plus' (earlier post) are price-competitive replacements for heating oils #2 and #6 that are widely used in industrial boilers and furnaces. Bio-oil can also be transformed into designer biofuels for transport.
Dynamotive's plant design has attracted attention from the bioenergy community because it promises genuine decentralized biofuel production. Because the plant is a modular concept, it can be brought to the source of the biomass, instead of bringing bulky feedstock to a central plant. The idea is to turn the bulky biomass feedstock into bio-oil on the spot. This liquid with a much higher energy density can then be transported more economically to more central processing facilities, or directly to end-markets. Moreover, the modularity of the core processing modules allows for better scaleability (more here).
During the demonstration, the plant was operational and for the first time the full cycle of production from wood chips to bio-oil was demonstrated publicly. The plant had previously undergone testing and inspection processes by regulatory and technical authorities in readiness for continuous operation. Previous tests conducted demonstrated the capacity of the plant to operate at its nominal design capacity of 200 tonnes per day biomass input.
Dynamotive and Evolution Biofuels (Dynamotive's partner in the venture) based on the successful start up will now proceed with the final commissioning and synchronization of all systems task that is expected to be completed within two weeks. The plant will be then operated by Dynamotive’s and Tecna’s staff for 60 days before handing over the plant operations to Evolution Biofuels:
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: fast-pyrolysis :: bio-oil :: decentralisation ::
The tour was part of a two-day conference in Toronto sponsored by the IEA's Bioenergy Task 40 which focuses on bioenergy trade, Bioenergy Focus Ontario and the Canadian Bioenergy Association, a national non-profit organization whose mission is to promote utilization of sustainable biomass for the production of biofuels, heat and power.
The Guelph plant, with a capacity to convert 200 tonnes of biomass into bio-oil per day, was developed in partnership with MegaCity Recycling Inc. and operates under the name Evolution Biofuels Inc. This Dynamotive flagship pyrolysis plant was constructed using modules that minimize on-site activities and allow for rapid deployment. It comprises eight fully assembled modules and when fully operational will process 66,000 dry tons of biomass per year with an energy output equivalent to 130,000 barrels of oil.
Prior to the tour, Dynamotive's Vice President Anton Kuipers presented the company's strategic initiatives to conference attendees on Wednesday, September 12. Mr. Kuipers commented during the presentation, "With two BioOil plants completed in Canada and plans underway for additional plants in Latin America and in the United States, Dynamotive is moving ahead in its global initiative to increase production of fuels from biomass." (On Dynamotive's activities in Latin America, see here).
In a very interesting side-development, Dynamotive also announced that it is experimenting with biochar ('agrichar', 'terra preta') which could lead to the production of carbon-negative fuels (more here and here). By storing a carbon-rich fraction of the pyrolysed biomass in agricultural soils, a low-tech carbon sequestration technique can be developed. The process has shown to result in increased yields for the (energy) crops that are planted on such improved soils.
References:
Biopact: Dynamotive and Mitsubishi Corporation sign cooperation agreement - August 02, 2007
Biopact: Dynamotive plans to build 6 bio-oil plants in Argentina - April 30, 2007
Biopact: Dynamotive begins construction of modular fast-pyrolysis plant in Ontario - December 19, 2006
Biopact: Biomass-to-liquids: bring the factory to the forest, not the forest to the factory - September 18, 2006
Biopact: Carbon negative biofuels: Dynamotive to test biochar to boost crop yields, water quality, and sequester carbon - May 30, 2007
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posted by Biopact team at 11:07 PM 2 comments links to this post