The concept of Biodiesel

Biodiesel constitutes an easily handled fuel with a high energy density, comparable with that of mineral oil and substantially higher than natural gas or hydrogen. Biodiesel can already be employed in a thermal engine such as a diesel engine economically and highly efficiently for mobile applications.Biodiesel, which is sold at over 1,700 filling stations in Germany and Austria, is therefore a genuine alternative to conventional diesel. However, a complete substitution is impossible. It is estimated that five to seven percent of the diesel fuel consumption could be replaced by biodiesel production with indigenous raw materials. 10 percent is conceivable within the European Union. The biogenic fuel biodiesel is therefore now at the peak of all alternative fuels and, together with other concepts such as hydrogen engines and fuel cell technology, biodiesel will assume a supporting role in the mobility of the future, when the mineral oil wells have run dry.

The restriction of the potential quantities results from the requirement of crop rotation of the rapeseed plant. It can only be cultivated economically and within ecological reason every third or fourth year. In contrast with grain or maize, rapeseed is not selfsustaining and monocultures are therefore impossible.

Taking account of these requirements, a maximum potential cultivation of approx. 1 million hectares is ecologically achievable in Germany. Increases in the yield of oilseed cultivation and the reduction of the consumption of vehicle fleets is not taken into account in the estimated potentials. With the East European countries entering the EU, the potential area and thereby raw materials in the European Union will increase very significantly. Also, other vegetable oils can be transformed into biodiesel.

In view of the overproduction of agricultural products prevalent in our region, the cultivation of so-called regenerative raw materials for exclusive use in technology and for their energy opens a reasonable alternative to traditional food production for the agricultural industry. Instead of turning agricultural areas into fallow land due to overproduction, they can be used to produce energy. The cultivation of plants for their energy will then not compete with food production, an apprehension often expressed in connection with the discussion of raw materials. These areas will be available at any time according to the demand for food production - in contrast to permanent fallow.

Newspaper story says 16 ethanol plants have filed for bankruptcy and more will file next year!

"US Insane Ethanol Biofuels Policies Cause of Food Crisis"

16 Ethanol Plants File Bankruptcy

The US Ethanol Industry Is In Distress. The U.S. ethanol industry is in trouble and can expect to see a rash of bankruptcies and dismantling of at least some production, according to a specialist who helps companies in distress.

Alex Moglia, president of Moglia Advisors based in the Chicago area, said he knows of at least 16 ethanol companies that are filing for bankruptcy, and there will be at least two to three times that number filing within the next year.
The weakness of the U.S. dollar makes it possible for foreign investors to acquire ethanol plants "at a deep discount," he said.
"They can buy as low as 20 or 30 cents on the dollar," Moglia said. "That should scare the hell out of anyone in the biofuels industry. I've worked with plants that are incomplete, others that can't offer profitably so they've all shut down. This will shake out most of small- and mid-sized players. Larger players will survive because they have buying power."
More ethanol producers will continue to file bankruptcy, he said, because of high feedstock costs and a "limited upside flexibility in terms of how much you can sell ethanol for."
"The demand for ethanol is not there," Moglia said. "The same thing happening to ethanol is happening in the biodiesel business. It will be the Wal-Mart-ization of the ethanol industry. It's just a mess."
Peiffer said many ethanol plants are and will be folding because "the business model they were built on doesn't work." Farmers and their cooperatives have either borrowed money or pledged their land as collateral in building ethanol plants, he said.
For every 10 ethanol and/or biodiesel plants "you read about in the media, there are probably 50 to 100 others that are in financial difficulty and are contemplating shutdown," Moglia said.
Since ethanol production is mandated by the federal government, he said they are already "operating outside free-market fundamentals.
Ethanol Tariffs An Economic Failure
Ethanol Producer Magazine is reporting Brazil launches campaign to remove ethanol tariff. The Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association is launching a public relations campaign on the Fourth of July designed to encourage the American public to pressure the U.S. Congress into removing the 54 cent ethanol import tariff. The 2008 farm bill extended the tariff, designed to support an emerging U.S. ethanol industry and to prevent foreign ethanol producers from benefiting from American subsidies, through 2010.
The Are We There Yet? campaign, which consists of an interactive Web site and television ads, is supported by various U.S. food and meat processing companies. The association chose to launch its campaign on the Fourth of July holiday because it's one of America's busiest travel holidays.
"Americans are being denied an opportunity to save money at the pump," said Joel Velasco, chief representative for UNICA. "There is a solution that could have an immediate impact on [the] price at the pump - lifting the tariff on imported ethanol."
A World Bank Report suggests Biofuels behind food price hikes. Biofuels have caused world food prices to increase by 75 percent, according to the findings of an unpublished World Bank report published in The Guardian newspaper on Friday.
The report's author, a senior World Bank economist, assessed that contrary to claims by US President George W. Bush, increased demand from India and China has not been the cause of rising food prices. Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been moderate," the report said.
Source: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.energy.renewable/browse_thread/thread/6440f20a51ffbcd7?hl=en

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5337

Cellulosic ethanol commercialization

Cellulosic ethanol commercialization can contribute to a successful renewable fuels future. Companies such as Iogen, Broin, and Abengoa are all building refineries that can process biomass and turn it into ethanol, while companies such as Diversa, Novozymes, and Dyadic are producing enzymes and Butalco[58] is developing improved yeast strains, which could enable a cellulosic ethanol future. The shift from food crop feedstocks to waste residues and native grasses offers significant opportunities for a range of players, from farmers to biotechnology firms, and from project developers to investors.[59]

A biorefinery built to produce 1.4 million gallons of ethanol a year from cellulosic biomass has opened in Jennings, LA. Built by Verenium, based in Cambridge, MA, the plant makes ethanol from agricultural waste left over from processing sugarcane. [60] Gulf Ethanol Corporation [3] (GFET) announced in June 2008 that it has established an R&D facility dedicated to refining the design of its cellulosic feedstock preprocessor. Cellulosic feedstock is used to produce ethanol from non-food products.

The new facility will be focused on enhancing the system for commercial delivery as a solution for cellulosic feedstock processing in ethanol production. Equipment and feedstocks are being acquired to analyze the throughput capacity, energy requirements, and scalability of the system. This equipment can improve the efficiencies of cellulosic feedstock and provide ethanol producers with an alternative to corn. Initial experiences with components of the system lead the company to believe that the system will significantly improve process times and net ethanol yield from cellulosic feedstocks

An ethanol production plant, capable of producing fifty million gallons of ethanol per year, is projected to continuously require the equivalent of a truckload of sorghum every five minutes. Initial experiences with components of the system indicate that large quantities could be processed with cost effective energy consumption. The focus of the R&D facility will be to quantify the precise parameters of the systems operations and evaluate the engineering requirements to scale the unit to handle the quantities of feedstock that a commercially viable cellulosic ethanol. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulosic_ethanol

Parallels - Biofuels and Mao's "Great Leap Forward"

Christopher Calder


An essential economic point that political leaders and the media have missed about the world food crisis is that rising oil prices have not shrunk the human food supply, but biofuel production has. Higher oil prices naturally raise the cost of everything that takes energy to produce, but additionally United States and European Union policies have actually reduced the amount of food available for humans to eat by artificially mandating a shift of agricultural resources to biofuel


production. President Bush's 2007 "Energy Independence and Security Act" turns food into fuel, and is reminiscent of Chairman Mao Tse Tung's 1958 Five Year Plan, known as "The Great Leap Forward." Mao forcefully shifted China's agricultural based economy to greater industrial output, a policy which caused the greatest famine in world history.


The big problem with the Bush energy plan is that the higher food prices of 2008 cannot easily lead to increased food production, as would normally be the case, because of the government mandated shift of land, water, fertilizer, farm equipment, and manpower resources to biofuel production. With biofuels out of the equation, farmers could have easily passed higher energy costs on to consumers without shrinking food production, and they could have increased food output to meet the greater demands of an expanding world population. Higher prices normally give producers a strong incentive signal to make more of a product so they can make more money. Now those incentive signals are confused and ineffective because farmers must produce for the automotive biofuel market as well as for the human food market.


Chairman Mao Tse Tung banned private farms in 1958 in his shift to communes and greater industrial output at the expense of agriculture. This led to a 15% drop in grain production in 1959 and another 10% reduction in 1960. Ethanol production is currently consuming 33% to 38% of America's corn crop, depending of whose statistics you believe, and has caused many farmers to grow corn to make ethanol instead of wheat to make bread. America is also using an ever increasing percentage of its soybeans and rapeseed crop for the production of biodiesel. These basic food products are the foundation of America's food supply, because we use them to feed our farm animals which give us dairy products, eggs, and meat. The new 2007 energy law has demanded even more of our food to be turned into fuel in the name of "energy independence," but at the tragic cost of global food supply security.


Mao's top-down meddling in agriculture was compounded by droughts and storms, just as Bush's top-down meddling in agriculture has been compounded by a drought in Australia, and a winter storm in China which caused major crop failures. A convergence of forces turned Mao's well meaning 1958 plan into the greatest famine in world history, with mortality estimates ranging widely from 14 million up to 40 million. Bush's well meaning 2007 "Energy Independence and Security Act" may take even more lives worldwide over the next few years, unless public protest puts a halt to the madness of turning food into fuel.


See biofuel facts and better alternatives at - http://home.att.net/~meditation/bio-fuel-hoax.html

Regeneration of Coconut Trees in Minahasa

by http://charlesroring.blogspot.com/

Minahasa is one of the regencies in Indonesia that has large area of coconut plantation. Coconut has been an important export commodity of the Province of North Sulawesi. After harvesting the fruit, farmers take the white flesh out of the shells and dry it under the sun or roasted it using the shells as the burning fuel. A fresh white flesh or endosperm contains around 40% oil while the dried one, called copra, contains up to 65% oil. Usually, farmers sell their copra to Bimoli factory in Bitung municipality. One metric ton of copra needs between 9,000 and 11,000 coconut fruits.

Coconut fruits can also be processed to make other products such as palm sugar, nata de coco and dessicated coconut or farine de coco. Other side products of coconut are bungkil (solid residue of copra after extracting oil); fiber and coconut shells which are very good raw material for the manufacturing of active carbon.

Coconut will remain productive until the age of 40 years. Then, the output will wall gradually. The minimum economical production rate of coconut should be 5 metric ton per hectare per year. If the amount cannot be met, farmers must do regeneration. This kind of activity will make the land unproductive for the next three or four years until the new plants produce coconut fruits again.

Majority of coconut plantations in Minahasa, North Sulawesi have reached their productive limit. Therefore, they have tobe replaced by young plants. Many Minahasan farmers do not obtain optimum per hectare harvest. They know that they have to replace the old plants with the new ones but high cost of replacement has become the main hurdle for them.

In order to prevent the farmers from not getting income, a gradual regeneration must be introduced. Besides the plantation can still give income to the farmers, it will only need small number of workers. In gradual regeneration scheme, only unproductive plants that will be replaced by young coconut plants. This method is called selective regeneration.

There is also another scheme that is considered suitable for farmers. Young coconut plants will be planted among old trees as insertion plants. When these young plants are able to produce coconut fruits, then the old trees will be cut.

A plantation in Bukit Doa, Pinaling of Minahasa regency raises additional income by opening a prayer resort in the middle of the area. Tourists visit this religious site, recite rosary along the way of the cross that had been constructed among the coconut trees. Incorporating tourism activity into coconut production line needs special preparation and knowledge.

In the Philipines, tourists are invited to visit traditional palm sugar production centers located in the middle of the plantation and the villages.

The conversion of coconut oil to biodiesel is not recommended, unless the market is overstock, as the amount of profit which farmers can gain is not significant. Such conversion will create scarcity of cooking oil in the market. In fact, the ones who enjoy the profit of biodiesel conversion are the manufacturer.

Non-food Crops should be used for bio-fuel production

by http://charlesroring.blogspot.com

In my opinion biofuel can be one of the alternative answers to fuel crisis, especially for the transportation. The way we make biofuel is what really matters. In many countries, biofuel is obtained from the conversion of food materials especially soya beans, corn, cassava, and sugarcane. Such practice will significantly reduce the amount of food supply both in the national and international market. Massive palm and sugarcane plantations in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brazil destroy bio-diversity of the local environment. Malaysia and Indonesia open millions of hectares of Sawit plantation for palm oil production.

In addition, the introduction of bio-fuel plant foreign to certain area will definitely damage the balance of food chain, and cause deforestation. For instance, I read in a book entitled Bahan Bakar Nabati (meaning literally bio-fuel) which says that Papua and West Papua province of Indonesia have the potency of 5,137,186 hectares of Sawit plantations (Elais guineensis) for the production of palm oil and bio-diesel. I consider it as unwise project. Sawit is not native plant of Papua. It comes from Africa. The introduction of sawit in Papua in the form of huge plantations will be harmful to the local environment especially the tropical rainforest. Actually there are a number of plants that are ready to be used for making bio-fuel. On the map, Papua island is located above Australia, it has tens of millions of Aren palm trees (Arenga pinnata) which are native plants. Traditionally, villagers tap the sap from very very small number of these plants to make alcoholic drinks whereas the rest majority are left untapped in the jungle. Local government have banned alcoholic drinks made of these plants since drunkards often committed criminal acts in the community. Less than one percent of the trees are used for making palm sugar.
The tapping of sap from Aren tree will not harm the environment because the worker does not have to cut any single Aren tree for 50 years which is its average life-time. Industrialized countries in Europe, The United States, Japan and South Korea must set special standard of biofuel imports. Biodiesel and bioethanol which are imported from third world countries must come from plantations that have caused deforestation of tropical rainforest and that are not directed for food production.
In fact, countries in Africa and Asia have a number of plants for bio-fuel raw material which are not food crops. Some of them are elephant grass, jatropha curcas; and to some extend Aren (Arenga pinnata) and Nypa (nypa fruticans). Both plants can produce 2 - 3 times more ethanol than sugacane per hectare.
I hope that this opinion will give a balance perspective on this bio-fuel matter.

Bio-vehicle, the easiest solution when facing the soaring fuel price

by: http://charlesroring.blogspot.com/

I have just read in Euronews TV that the price of crude oil has reached 140 USD/ barrel. The recent hike is caused by the decision from Libyan government to reduce production. Whatever the reason for the price hikes, it clearly shows how vulnerable the fossil fuel is. Any disturbance in the Middle-East, say - a refinery is attacked by a small granade, will bring the fuel price getting closer to 200 USD/ barrel.

The soaring price will create more burden to customers around the world. When oil producers enjoy this prosperous moment, oil importer countries must face street protests from their own people. Fishermen cannot catch fish, truck drivers blockade main streets, university students in Indonesia are involved in violent clashes with the police while protesting the government policy in front of the parliament house. More and more office workers commute by public transportation instead of driving their own cars.

Actually when fewer cars are seen on the streets, the environmental condition will be better. But such condition is not what city dwellers want. People still have to go to work, school, hospital, and anywhere they need. That's why experts are doing more efforts in inventing energy efficient cars running on bio-fuel and solar energy. The European Union, The United States, Japan, Korea, and Brazil have developed flexible fuel vehicles that run on gasoline and bio-ethanol. There are also hybrid cars that use fuel-cells, gasoline and even solar energy. Solar panel or solar module is installed on top of a car to provide additional electrical energy for the car.

In the field of bio-fuel, tropical countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, African and South American countries open massive plantation to produce palm oil for bio-diesel production. The United States and Brazil are leaders in bio-ethanol production using sugarcane. It is hoped that all these efforts will improve the environmental condition and at the same time reduce the dependency on fossil fuel which is harmful to the environment.

When people in industrialised countries are focusing their attentions and efforts on the development of energy efficient cars, people in third world countries have to make adjustments too. They have been much effected by the already soaring price of staple food and cooking oil due to the conversion of these agricultural commodities into bio-fuel. Unfortunately, they cannot afford to buy cutting-edge cars running on bio-fuel. They do not have sophisticated renewable energy laboratory and the know-how to produce solar panel or flex-engine either. Solar panel production needs special technology that is very difficult for the villagers to achieve. The easiest solution for them is going back to organic farming, and riding or driving bio-vehicles. Here, the term bio-vehicle is not meant to be a car that consumes bio-ethanol nor a kind of car or truck or tractor that runs on solar energy. It is simply a carriage that is drawn by animal.

So, bio-vehicle is horse or cow or donkey-drawn carriage used to transport people and goods. While I was in Sonder Minahasa, North Sulawesi, I happened to take pictures of these bio-vehicles. Some are pulled by horses while others by cows. Whether a cart is pulled by a particular animal depends on the purpose of the vehicle. For transporting people to school or work, the cart is drawn by horse. The first picture shown in this article depicts how Minahasan people use Bendi (a horse-driven cart) as taxi. In the second picture, a cow-driven cart called Roda Sapi is used to transport agricultural produce from a farmland to the market. Both bio-vehicles do not emit CO2.gas. There are thousands of Roda Sapi and Bendi in Minahasa. They contribute significant income to their owners. The money paid by a customer will not fly out to oil exporter countries in the Middle-East. It will go to cart owners who spend it in the local market. Such bio-vehicles were abandoned by town dwellers in the past due to lower fare public buses which consumed fossil fuel.

Today, when the fuel price is expensive, the number of bio-vehicles is expected to rise again. Bendi owners have been asked by their customers to keep their carriages clean and comfortable in order to attract more commuters. Bendi also attracts tourists who want to travel around the towns of Minahasa. One only pays less than a dollars to go around Sonder town, a beautiful town in Minahasa regency which has beautiful scenery.

We hope that in the future, we can see more flexible engine vehicles and bio-vehicles running side by side on the streets.

Aren tree is the highest among other bio-mass in terms of bio-ethanol production

by: http://charlesroring.blogspot.com/

Aren tree (arenga pinnata) is the highest in terms of bio-ethanol production compared to other plants such as sugarcane, wheat, rice, cassava, and banana. Aren is also called Saguer tree in Minahasa, the Province of North Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is a kind of palm which is similar to Sawit and Coconut trees. While I was travelling around Sonder village, I could take a picture of Aren tree between two coconut trees. Aren or Saguer has more leaves. Its color is also darker than coconut. There are approximately two million Aren trees in Minahasa. If all of them are productive, their sap can produce 876,000 kilo litres of bio-ethanol. Traditionally, the sap from Aren has been used in the production of alcoholic drinks by the villagers in Minahasa; Borneo; Java, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Fiji, and other islands in the Pacific. The sapping method is significantly different among tribes.

The sap is tapped from male inflourescence spadix twice a day, usually in the morning and in the afternoon before dark. The highest tapping is obtained during the full-moon period. Villagers don't tap the sap from female spadix due to its inferior quality.

One Aren tree can produce between 1 and 20 liters of sap/day. Ten percent of it, after fermentation and distillation, will be converted into bio-ethanol. According to Indonesian Science Agency - LIPI, one hectare of land can accomodate from 75 to 100 trees. On the average, one hectare of Aren trees produces 1,000 liters of sap a day which is equivalent to 100 liters of bio-ethanol. It means that the amount of bio-ethanol produced from one hectace of land is 36,000 liters/ year. This figure is higher than sugarcane.

A number of companies have constructed bio-ethanol distillaries in Indonesia. One of them is located in Motoling, South Minahasa, Indonesia. Its production capacity is 1.5 metric ton of 99.5% bio-ethanol/day. Indonesia is seriously developing its bio-fuel and renewable energy resources after becoming net-importer of oil. This year alone, Indonesia has quit from its membership in OPEC. The soaring oil price in the world market creates more burden to national budget due to the fuel subsidy. This unfavorable situation forced the government to reduce the subsidy by raising the fuel price. Such policy creates massive street protests nationwide, food price hikes and instability in the country.

It is hoped that the production of bio-ethanol from Aren or Saguer trees, sugarcane, cassava will help poor farmers in getting higher income thus improving their economy.

Clay Stove replaces Kerosene stoves

Recently, clay stove has been getting more and more popular in Sonder, Minahasa, the Province of North Sulawesi. A homemaker needs three to five pieces of wood to cook rice, vegetables, and to fry fish for lunch. This is considered far cheaper than buying kerosene. Homemakers in Minahasa and other towns in Indonesia are asked by the government to replace their kerosene stoves with LPG stoves. Actually the price of a 3-kilogram LPG tank is quite cheap but the cost of transportation to remote villages makes it expensive. Therefore, people prefer to use wood as household fuel.

When firewood is not available, it can be substitute by coconut shells. Coconut shells are the side products of copra. Copra is the dried flesh of coconut which contains high percentage of edible oil. The soaring fossil fuel price has also triggered bio-diesel development using coconut oil as the raw material. So, coconut oil will not only be used as cooking oil but also as diesel oil. In the past, most of the the overstock of coconut shell was not used for biomass fuel. They are considered as waste. Villagers were reluctant to sell the shells to a factory because the cost of transport is high. Now, they use these shells as cooking fuel.

The design of clay stove is very simple. It is moulded from clay in a hollow box shape. One, where pieces of wood are inserted is rectangular whereas the other where the flame heat the cooking pan is circular. There are two clay stove producers in Sonder village, Minahasa. More clay stove producers are expected to grow in other villages of Minahasa regency. A clay stove is sold for Rp. 30,000 (equals to 3.2 US dollars).

Wet clay stoves, coming out of the mock-up are dried under the sun. Sometimes, a producer of clay stoves covers his products with plastic sheet when the sun ray is too hot in order to avoid cracks in them. The clay stoves are also covered when it rains as seen in the picture.

More clay stoves used by the villagers will be better for the local economy. The money spent by every household to buy wood, coconut shells, and clay stove, will only circulate within the villages instead of flying out to oil exporter countries. When more money circulates in the villages, the economic activities of the people will accelerate in spite of the oil crisis.
In most remote villages in Minahasa of Indonesia, the use of clay stoves is still common. Every household has at least two in their kitchen whereas in towns and cities across the Indonesian archipelago, most households use kerosene stoves. Below is the photograph of Kompor Hock, the most popular kerosene stove in this country. As you can see, they are made of aluminum with fuel tank installed at the bottom of the stoves. Clay stoves are not popular in big cities due to the size and lack of wood as fuel for cooking. In addition, housewives in the city prefer to have spotless kitchen with electrical or gas stoves installed in them. by Charles Roring

Although clay stove as wood has been modified to be more efficient and less smoky, it is still considered as an ancient or old fashioned cooking equipment. Indonesia is located in the tropical region where the temperature is quite high. Clay stove is used only for cooking. It is hardly ever used for room heating. So, you will not see a wood stove installation in every Indonesian house which you usually find in Western houses in Europe or the United States. There is now clay chimney for this stove either. Smoke comes out from the openings where pieces of wood are inserted.

The effect of Soaring Fossil Fuel on the price of agricultural produce

by http://charlesroring.blogspot.com/

Price hikes in agricultural produce is relatively caused by the soaring fuel price. Farmers have to pay more for the same amount of fuel which they used in tractors and other farming machines. In addition, synthetic fertilizer is made of by products of crude oil.

In countries like the United States, million tons of corn and soy bean are used as raw material for making bio-diesel. This kind of practice reduces the amount of those food material in the world market. High price and inavailability of food in the market mean more starvings. This situation is very dangerous. People launched massive street protest against their government. They blame the government for not being able to stabilise food price.

In certain cases, the soaring food price is considered positive by traditional farmers who do not use tractors or machines. I saw this case in Sonder, and other Minahasan villages in North Sulawesi. They do not use tractors to plow their field. Instead they use cow. They also use organic fertilizer made of manure. Farmers get higher profit from higher agricultural produce. Unfortunately, such situation cannot be used as an excuse to the the food price keeps going up. The price of food has to be within the reach of customers.

We cannot blame the government alone for this crisis. Bio-fuel industries should take the responsibility for this problem. Actually they have to use raw material other than food commodity so that their business will run without causing food scarcity in the market. Experts recommend algae, grass, jatropha curcas and other plants as base material for making bio-diesel and bio-ethanol. These plants will not always effective as some plants can only grow in tropical regions. To solve this problem, bio-fuel industry can still use food base material such as coconut, sawit palm, cassava or soy bean, and corn but they must grow new plantations. They must not convert the available plantations, which had previously been dedicated to supplying food to the market, to bio-fuel production.

Bio-fuel importers in Europe and the North America must set standards which can be used to prevent the conversion of food farmland into bio-fuel plantation.

Copra and Saguer Palm Trees are suitable as bio-fuel resources for villages in the Pacific

by Charles Roring

Coconut Fruits

In tropical areas, copra has been a traditional commodity for the villagers. Copra is the white flesh of a coconut (endosperm) which has been dried. When it is in dry form its color changes into dark brown. Farmers usually pick up the fallen coconuts in their garden.

After peeling of the coconut and cracking the hard shell which covers the endosperm, the farmer or copra worker will pry loose the meat of the coconut. Then he will dry all the endosperm under the sun. Sometimes the weather is cloudy and the optimum drying of copra cannot be achieved. To accelerate the drying process, farmers roast the hundreds of kilograms of endosperms by using shell and husk that are the byproducts of the coconut.

In intensive coconut plantation, the harvest is carried out every two or three months. For 9,000 up to 11,000 coconuts, a farmer can get between 1.5 and 2.0 metric ton of copra. One hectare of coconut trees can produce between 5,000 and 6,000 coconuts a year. They are equal to around 1.5 ton of Copra. One ton equals to 1,000 kilograms.

In the past, oil that was obtained after pressing the copra was used as edible or cooking oil. It was not competitive to make it as bio-fuel. Yesterday (16 June, 2008), the price of crude oil reached 140 US dollars a barrel. This makes the bio-fuel produced from copra is more competitive. Farmers can sell copra with better price and bio-fuel producers can sell bio-diesel in profitable price.

Kopra (dried coconut meat)

Coconut can produce sap which can be processed to make bio-ethanol. Before its blossom (spadix) changes into coconut fruits, a farmer cut it and collect its sap in a bamboo. Traditionally the sap is boiled to make palm sugar.

Besides coconut, there is also another palm variety that produces higher amount of sap. It is Saguer palm tree. It looks like coconut but they are different. Saguer tree is the local name of Arenga Pinnata (Latin) in Minahasa regency in the Province of North Sulawesi. When I travelled to this region, I was able to take pictures of the Saguer tree. For other region in Indonesia and other countries, people might call it Aren, Ampo and etc.

Aren tree

Saguer produces sweet sap which ferments fast. For palm sugar home industry, the container (usually bamboo) has to be washed to clean the yeast formed or produced by the saguer tree itself. The color of the sap or the juice is clear white. It is then boiled and stirred using small flame to make palm sugar. I haven't been able to present data about the production capacity for a hectare of saguer trees. Fermented Saguer sap contain alcohol which can be distilled to make bio-ethanol. This alcoholic drink has been banned in Manokwari, West Papua due to its negative effect in the community. Drunkards which drink the Saguer or Ampo often committed violence in the market or in their neighborhood. The utilization of saguer sap into bio-fuel can be considered as a positive alternative for traditional farmers.

So, in order to make bio-fuel, we do not have to depend on Sawit palm tree (Elaeis guineensis) which in certain regions of tropical areas are not a native palm variety. We can still produce bio-fuel by using native plants that will not severely damage the surrounding local environment.

Native Plants for Bio-ethanol and Bio-diesel Program

by Charles Roring
We can use sap of coconut and saguer palm trees, sugarcane, cassava and etc. to make bio-ethanol. To make this kind of industry profitable, we need massive plantation. But the development of this industry should not damage the local environment. In practice, we often see how bio-ethanol corporations grow plants in certain areas that are not native to the surrounding environment. These plants can be considered foreign plants and might cause environmental problems. This also happens in bio-diesel industry. In Indonesia, plantation companies grow sawit palm trees to produce palm oil. This kind of practice brings damage to the surrounding environment. The reason is that sawit palm trees are more profitable than other plants such as coconut and corn for bio-fuel production.
Cassava, jatropha, and sugarcane, coconut and saguer palm are native plants in Indonesia. Research and development for better varieties of these plants is needed to increase the productivity. Saguer palm trees produce significant amount of sap which can be used as raw material of alcohol destilation. Traditionally, people use the sap to make palm sugar and alcoholic drinks. The production of sap from saguer tree is higher than coconut. So, it is our potential bio-ethanol raw material which has not been developed seriously.
Native plants are more resistant to insects and bacteria. They can produce sap or oil continuously without much difficulties. Therefore I hope that more experts in this country can make saguer palm trees and other local plants as the base of developing bio-ethanol and bio-diesel industries in this country. They might not be better than foreign plants but with substantial R and D we can improve their productivity.
Indonesia has set a national program to increase the production of bio-fuel until 2010 by opening 5.25 million hectares of land for bio-fuel crops. This huge area will be divided into four main crops, i.e. sawit palm 1.5 million ha (28%), jatropha 1.5 million hectares (29%), sugarcane 0.75 million hectares (14%), and cassava 1.5 million hectares (29%). These plantations will be scattered throughout the archipelago. To support the national goal, all related departments and private sectors as well as local governments and communities have to cooperate together. The opening of these plantations must not jeopardise other food crop areas that have been productive in producing food for people. So, unproductive lands should be used for this purpose.
Unfortunately, this ambitious plan is not without risk. Private companies prefer to open their plantation in fertile land. This will mean that more forest will be cut and replaced by sawit palm and sugarcane plantations. In addition, more farmers are needed to run the plantations. In big islands where huge land area is available, usually the density of local population is very low. This will be used as an excuse by the plantation companies to recruit hundreds of thousands of farm workers from other densly populated islands. Such transmigrations program became major horizontal problems between 1999 -2002 as we could see in West Kalimantan and Maluku. Migrants and local communities were involved in communal clashes due to land disputes and economic imbalances as well as sectarian conflicts.
We must not encourage transmigration in order to fulfil this national goal. We can still achieve the above goal by empowering the local people so that more jobs will be available to them in these newly opened plantations.

Rise of Fossil Fuel, Rise of Renewable Energy

by Charles Roring

Recently the price of fuel has risen up to 138 dollars per barrel in the international market. This influences all countries around the world. While most oil rich nations enjoy prosperous time, poor countries are facing chaotic situations. People took to the streets protesting their own governments for not being able to keep the fuel price low. The rise of oil fuel price causes the rise of food price and other products. Millions of people are starving. Governments are overthrown.
Governments have decided to reduce their subsidy on fuel in order to save their annual budget plan. This reduction is rejected by the people. In response to the policy, people launched massive protests. We all know that the use of fuel oil is increasing rapidly. Former communist countries such as Russia, China and Vietnam as well as the second most populous country, India, are accelerating their industrial and economic development. Unfortunately these countries gave little attention on the development of bio-fuel.
The only developing country that seriously develops its alternative energy source is Brazil. Gas stations in that country sell up to 85% bio-ethanol or gasohol as substitute for gasoline. The money which car owners pay doesn’t go to oil rich nations in the middle-east but sugar cane farmers in Sao Paulo area. With more money circulating among the farmers, the economic activities in the villages of the country is getting better. Such activities influence the overall economic condition of Brazil. Now it is not only famous for its football players but also for its bio-fuel.
Actually, this kind of policy must also be followed by other countries which are facing similar problems. Oil deposit lies in countries that sometimes are not stable enough to ensure adequate supply of oil to the world market. Any instability in the middle-east can easily trigger the rise of fuel and effect the whole global economic activities. Oil is important but its strategic role on livelihood of world population is very dangerous.
Therefore, it is very important for countries around the world to reduce their subsidy on fuel price and begin investing more money on the development of renewable energy.
Bio-fuel in the form of bio-diesel and bio-ethanol, as well as other sources of renewable energy, can reduce the strategic role of fossil fuel. Countries around the world have to increase the use of alternative energy. Besides they can open more jobs for their own people, they can give great contribution in creating more peace and stability in the world.
In Brazil, bio-ethanol is extracted from sugar cane. A big country like Brazil needs to open huge areas of sugarcane plantation in order to be self sufficient in bio-fuel. Such huge areas of plantation can endanger the biodiversity of the local environment. Deforestation is not recommended in this case. It will do more harm to people. So, more diversifications of renewable energy will help minimize that negative impact. Solar photovoltaic, hydro power and wind energy will bring more prosperity to human kind in the future.
Sugarcane is not the only plant in ethanol production. Other tropical plants such as Saguer, Coconut and lontar trees can produce sugar. Sap from these trees can be fermented and destilled to make alcohol.