Biofuels

Background

In 1892 engineer Rudolf Diesel, born in Paris to German parents, patented an internal combustion engine that did not require a spark to ignite the fuel-air mixture. What is surprising is that in its most famous demonstration, in Paris in 1900, his diesel engine was fuelled by pure vegetable oil. The first biodiesel.

Rudolf Diesel (1858 – 1913) with his engine patent.

Rudolf’s Diesel Engine, exhibited at the 1900 Paris Exhibition, running on peanut oil.

Although vegetable oil was first chosen to power the diesel engine at the turn of the twentieth century, biodiesel has only now become a firm focus for vehicle fuel in the twenty-first.

World interest in biofuels re-emerged in the 1970’s. The process of transesterification can lower the viscosity of vegetable oils and most exhaust emissions are substantially reduced when using bio fuel. The European Biofuels Directive requires that currently 2% of energy for transport fuels sold in Europe is supplied from renewable sources, including biodiesel and bioethanol, rising to 5.75% by 2010 and 20% by 2020.

ESV Group has been involved in the growing and marketing of vegetable oils for the biofuel industry for many years. In the tropics it has developed jatropha trees and in the Ukraine it has grown seed plants capable of high oil yields.

Jatropha

Jatropha Curcas, the oilseed-bearing tree utilised for biofuel supply.

The Jatropha tree is amongst the most environmentally sustainable renewable crops suitable for biofuels. It is non-edible by either humans or animals, drought-resistant and can be grown on marginal or otherwise barren land, thus not affecting food agriculture. In 2007, ESV acquired an 11,000-hectare estate in the Inhambane Province in Mozambique and developed a jatropha plantation.

In 2009, when the first trees became harvestable, ESV sold the plantation together with its two established onsite nurseries to two European biofuel/biomass suppliers for US$4 million (see the announcement dated 23 November 2009 for details).

Seed oils

The rapeseed flower.

Although these plants are utilisable in the biofuel industry, ESV is conscious that rapeseed and soya bean are major sources of vegetable oil for human use and cattle feed. Their use in the biofuel field is therefore secondary.

The future

From its historical participation in the nascent biofuels industry, ESV is well-qualified to develop its position in biofuels.  It has logistics, distribution and marketing experience in both African and European theatres and has gained widespread knowledge of growing and processing the relevant crops in varying climates.

In particular it has identified the need to consolidate jatropha oil and biomass processing in East Africa and is actively engaged in developing this field of operations.