According to the results of a major study recently completed by Eduardo del Hierro, Juan Carlos del Hierro and myself which intends to put in the proper perspective the possibilities of using palm oil derivatives ( including crude palm oil and/or palm biodiesel ), among other important aspects we found that in order to substitute 100 % of the diesel comsumption in Colombia ( at present we use around 70,000 barrels per day ) we would need the palm oil produced by 900,000 hectares of plantations in full production. At this moment in Colombia we have 180,000 hectares in full production. You must keep in mind that it takes six to seven years for a palm oil plantation to reach full production levels. Malaysia, the world leader in the palm oil business, has 3.8 to 3.9 million hectares planted. One of our conclusions for Colombia is that palm oil as a biofuel has a space, indeed, but it is not the inmediate and magic solution because of the aforesaid and for the relative cost considerations which comprises one the major portions of the study.
Arturo Infante V Infante A, Del Hierro E, Del Hierro J.C., Del Hierro A, "Estudio Sobre la Prefactibilidad TŽcnica y Econ—mica de la Producci—n en Colombia de los Derivados del Aceite Crudo de Palma como Carburantes para Motores de Ciclo Diesel" FEDEPALMA ( Federation of Palm Oil Growers of Colombia) www.fedepalma.org , July 2004. Bogot‡ Colombia. [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>Date: Wed, 04 Dec 2002 23:30:09 -0000 >>>From: "jeff_kerzner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>>To: Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>>Subject: Re: Biofuels hold key to future of British farming >>> >>>I was having a discussion last night with a leading scientist in >>>the renewable energy field about using oil-bearing crops to produce >>>bio-diesel, and a question he raised was "what size area would be >>>required to plant a sufficient amount of crops to offset the energy >>>required for the whole growing & production process?". Could somebody >>>please comment on this. Thanks and GO BIO-DIESEL! >> >>The answer: none. >> >>Keith Addison >>Journey to Forever >>Handmade Projects >>Osaka, Japan >>http://journeytoforever.org/ >> > >I guess the leading scientist wouldn't have thought much of that answer. > >Ask him this: how much fossil-energy, in fuel, fertilizers and >pesticides, would be required to produce enough food to feed 900 >million people? > >Answer: none. > >According to the FAO, no less. More than 15% of the world's food >supply is produced by city farms (in 1993, expected to grow to 33% >by 2005), with virtually no inputs other than wastes (thus vastly >decreasing city sanitation problems as well), and with the use of no >farming land at all. Quite easy to apply such an approach to >biofuels production. For one thing, only 10% of the WVO in the >industrialized countries is collected, and it will stay at that >level until there are such *local* initiatives. Large amounts of >fuel ethanol can be produced by micro-operations from city wastes. >Large amounts of biogas can be produced for heating and cooking from >wastes, and the sludge used as fertilizer in the city farm. > >That's just one such niche. > >Britain and Europe are supposed to be moving towards sustainable >agriculture. They'll try input substitution first - "organic" >weedkillers, LOL! Substitution doesn't work too well anyway - high >inputs, average to low outputs, lower externalizations. Less than 5% >of the organic farmers in the US use any pesticides at all, of >whatever origin, according to the USDA - they don't need them. >Organics by management (rather than by substitution or by neglect) >is low-input high-output. >http://archive.nnytech.net/index.php?view=12561&list=BIOFUEL > >It's integrated, and on any integrated farm it's possible to arrange >a constant varying supply of by-products to produce biofuels and >bioenergy sufficient to run the farm, plus. Even a half-baked >organics by substitution farm that hasn't discovered grazing yet >(buys in livestock feed) can achieve 40% energy self-sufficiency. >http://www.landinstitute.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2001/03/28/3accb0712 >?in_archive=1 > >Done properly using by-products and "wastes", how would you ascribe >a land-use figure to it? You wouldn't be using any land at all, not >exclusively. > >Hence my answer: none. > >More accurately perhaps, none and up. > >I suppose the scientist wanted to calculate a national-scale program >for fossil-fuel replacement. For one thing, rather more than mere >replacement is required, it also needs large reductions in energy >use and large improvements in energy efficiency, whatever the fuel >source. Anyway, such centralized, top-down schemes also don't work >very well, especially not when it comes to land use. Hence, perhaps, >the sorry recent record of British agriculture, and, too, the huge >waste and very high costs of the CAP, of commodity farming in the US >of soy and maize etc, and the massive externalizations inherent in >this approach. Jules Pretty at Essex conservatively calculates the >true costs of British farming to be higher than it's income. >Biofuels should be produced by more of the same? > >Maybe it's this approach that sees the British government thundering >expensively down the biomass-energy path, throwing away >multi-millions on coppice gasification projects. > >Think small, think local. > >Best > >Keith Addison >Journey to Forever > > >>>--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> > Martin Steele sent me this: >>> > >>> > >>> > á WESTERN MORNING NEWS ~ WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 4 2002 >>> > >>> > Biofuels hold key to future of British farming ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Yahoo! 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