Govt Plans To Establish Thailand As Biofuel Hub

[webfact]

Govt Plans to Establish Thailand as Biofuel Hub

BANGKOK: -- The Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency or DEDE, under the Energy Ministry, says the government plans to establish Thailand as the regional hub of biofuel and aims to increase the ratio of biofuel usage to the total usage of alternative energy from 2.6 percent to 4.1 percent, in accordance with the 15-year alternative energy development plan.

Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency Deputy Director General Twarath Sutabutr said the government plans to establish Thailand as the hub of biofuel in the region.

He added that, so far, Thailand has had considerable success in the development of biofuel, especially in producing biodiesel and ethanol.

The latest development in biofuel is green biodiesel jet fuel. Green jet fuel reduces carbon dioxide emission from airplanes significantly.

Thailand currently produces about sixteen million liters of green jet fuel every day, 12-13 million liters of which are domestically consumed, while the rest are exported.

More research will be done to increase output of raw materials for green jet fuel. More land will be reserved for growing tapioca, sugarcane, palm, corn, and eucalyptus.

Increasing the current yield rate of 3.5 tons per rai, per year to 10 tons per rai, per year will ensure that there will be enough supply of these agricultural products for domestic consumption and export.

Developing this fuel is part of the preparation for future regulations the EU is likely to take up, which requires all planes entering Europe to run on green jet fuel, from 2012 onwards.

The current ratio of biofuel usage to the total alternative energy usage is at 2.6 percent.

According to the 15-year alternative energy development plan, the ratio of alternative energy usage should reach 20.3 percent of the total energy usage.

Of the 20.3 percent, 4.1 percent will come from biofuel. The ratio of biofuel usage to total alternative energy usage will reach 14 percent in twenty years.

-- Tan Network 2010-08-18

[gotlost]

This should be good news for farmers. In Issan cassava has gone from 2.5 baht to 6 baht per kilo. The increase from 3.5 to 10 tons per rai is realistic.

[Pib]

Hubba, Hubba, Hubba....Thailand going to be another Hub...seems I've heard dozens of "Thailand To Be Hub" announcements over the last year from the government. I hope it works out but a Hub needs Spokes to connect the the outer Wheel, and I'm not sure the government has fully thought out the design of the whole wheel yet.

[Mikki]

yes wheels in thailand gets rather "square " after the big ones have had their chip of the thing but if theres a 1/4 of the plan to come true its good news to us cassava farmers

Regards

Mikki

[Lancelot]

As a side note, do Thai drivers readily adopt/use Gasohol? I still see drivers of many late model cars bypass Gasohol 91 for 100% gasoline.

I was killing some time at the mini McDonalds on Nana Soi 3, the one that has a small gas station in front(of McD's.) They had E20 (20% Gasohol) and not one driver opted for it...

Anyway, I agree its a good move both for Thailand and the hard working Isan farmers

[furyrider]

As a side note, do Thai drivers readily adopt/use Gasohol? I still see drivers of many late model cars bypass Gasohol 91 for 100% gasoline.

I was killing some time at the mini McDonalds on Nana Soi 3, the one that has a small gas station in front(of McD's.) They had E20 (20% Gasohol) and not one driver opted for it...

Anyway, I agree its a good move both for Thailand and the hard working Isan farmers

I think it may take a long while for it to catch on in cars. I haven't done much experimenting with it in my cars because they are diesel.

With that said I know that the US Air force has been doing extensive research using bio blends in there jets with favorable results. They plain in several more years to switch over to it in most jets with all branches of service. This should soon start spreading to the privet sector. I would see this becoming a big export market for Thailand. But before Thailand could really become a hub for Bio fuel the politicians will need to figure out how to keep there hand in the cooky jar and still have a low enough price fuel for export to compete with other bio fuel producing nations.

[craigt3365]

I hope they don't go the way of Borneo and cut down hundreds of square kilos of pristine jungle for palm oil plants. Pretty bad...very sad driving through that area now...

[souvenirdeparis]

I suspect the Thaï notion of hub isn't the common notion of hub; they haven't invented the hub (nor hot water).I wish one of the hubz official drew a picture of what he thinks a hub is , we could be surprised. A hub for biofuel sounds preposterous . Just sit on it Nan .

[asiawatcher]

Anything to do with 'green energy' is good but it is overrated. And for those who don't know like TAN, litre is not liter, tyre is not tire - sorry Bill Gates - you have been teaching the world how to misspell English (lazy English) for way too long!

[purushanti]

Famine not uncommon in this world, and can strike anywhere. So for middlemen to profit from the farmers, the feeding of technology, automobiles, etc., at the expense of the wretched of the earth, and pehaps closer to home sooner than one might think: a universal disgrace.

Think? One would have to be individuated to think for oneself and for the best benefit of others. Otherwise keep swimming in the same direction with all the others, as in a school of fish.

If in the pursuit of pleasure is the seed of pain, then in holy progress is the seed of destruction. have we not "progressed" enough, with the consequent destruction of animals plants, air water, and earth, all not only valuable in themselves, but essential as support for the continuation of the human race? Cui bono?..............Middle way, self-sufficiency---let's not discard them

[Humphrey Bear]

Have any of these guys paid a visit to Malaysia in the past fifteen years, or Indonesia in the last ten?

Both countries are far ahead in growing biofuel crops.

Vietnam is discussing it, but with their agreements with Malaysia for off-shore oil this may be shelved.

Thailand is, as usual, lagging behind it's more go-ahead neighbours.

(And yes, it would mean the destruction of both forest - what remains - and food-growing agriculture)

[RickBradford]

And yes, it would mean the destruction of both forest - what remains - and food-growing agriculture

Sadly, biofuels are a really bad choice, as even environmental groups have realized.

* Greenpeace recently called for Asian companies to stop planting palm oil for biofuel purposes because the forest destruction threatened the few remaining orang-utans with extinction.

* A recently released report from ActionAid says that up to 100 million more people could go hungry if Europe continues to increase its use of biofuels (which it plans to - by 2020 biofuel consumption in the EU is expected to jump nearly four-fold)

* In the U.S., water shortages due to the huge volumes necessary to process grains or sugar into ethanol are not uncommon, and are amplified if these crops are irrigated. Growing corn to produce ethanol, according to a 2007 study by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, consumes 200 times more water than the water used to process corn into ethanol.

* A study by Nobel-Prize winning chemist Paul Crutzen in 2007, emphasized the impact from the heavy applications of nitrogen needed to grow expanded feedstocks of corn and rapeseed. The nitrogen necessary to grow these crops releases nitrous oxide into the atmosphere — a greenhouse gas 296 times more damaging than CO2 — and contributes more to global warming than biofuels save through fossil fuel reductions.

In short, biofuels are another really bad idea from the sort of people who think they can save the planet by bringing a cloth bag to the supermarket instead of using a plastic one.

Edited August 18, 2010 by RickBradford

[chrisyork]

RickBradford, none of these criticisms apply in Thailand. Biofuel production is a switch of existing agricultural land, and, at least in the case of Ethanol, is produced from cassava. We have a brand new World Bank funded plant down the road from us, slated as the most efficient in the world. It uses the waste from the distillation to power the boilers, surplus steam from the boilers then generates electricity for the local grid. I'm not aware that this process takes any significant amount of water. How cool is that! Plus plenty of opportunity for "tea money" from all the construction involved!

Chris

[RickBradford]

^^^

Sounds like a cool plant.

I just hope that Thailand can avoid the mistakes which Indonesia in particular has made.

If the tea money can be increased by a few environmentally bad decisions, I'm sure those decisions will be gleefully made, especially with that word 'hub' floating around....

[Tanaka]

Green biodiesel jet fuel?? Jet engined aircraft do not run on dieselfuel!

[furyrider]

Green biodiesel jet fuel?? Jet engined aircraft do not run on dieselfuel!

Jet fuel is diesel fuel that has been refined more has less paraffin in it such as JP8 If it is not a diesel fuel how come our diesel generators the MRAP and trucks here in Iraq are running the same fuel as the Blackhawk the Chinooks C130 and the list goes on.

[yellow1red1]

And yes, it would mean the destruction of both forest - what remains - and food-growing agriculture

Sadly, biofuels are a really bad choice, as even environmental groups have realized.

* Greenpeace recently called for Asian companies to stop planting palm oil for biofuel purposes because the forest destruction threatened the few remaining orang-utans with extinction.

* A recently released report from ActionAid says that up to 100 million more people could go hungry if Europe continues to increase its use of biofuels (which it plans to - by 2020 biofuel consumption in the EU is expected to jump nearly four-fold)

* In the U.S., water shortages due to the huge volumes necessary to process grains or sugar into ethanol are not uncommon, and are amplified if these crops are irrigated. Growing corn to produce ethanol, according to a 2007 study by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, consumes 200 times more water than the water used to process corn into ethanol.

* A study by Nobel-Prize winning chemist Paul Crutzen in 2007, emphasized the impact from the heavy applications of nitrogen needed to grow expanded feedstocks of corn and rapeseed. The nitrogen necessary to grow these crops releases nitrous oxide into the atmosphere a greenhouse gas 296 times more damaging than CO2 and contributes more to global warming than biofuels save through fossil fuel reductions.

In short, biofuels are another really bad idea from the sort of people who think they can save the planet by bringing a cloth bag to the supermarket instead of using a plastic one.

RickBradford, none of these criticisms apply in Thailand. Biofuel production is a switch of existing agricultural land, and, at least in the case of Ethanol, is produced from cassava. We have a brand new World Bank funded plant down the road from us, slated as the most efficient in the world. It uses the waste from the distillation to power the boilers, surplus steam from the boilers then generates electricity for the local grid. I'm not aware that this process takes any significant amount of water. How cool is that! Plus plenty of opportunity for "tea money" from all the construction involved!

Chris

one minute - humans don't eat fuel! as RB says the coverting of farmland to fuel production is a growing world problem;how you can say Thailand won't use farm land or forests to make fuel?

like 20 to 30% interest rates on credit cards and countries that are bankrupt using money from next year for now, biofuels is false economy..

3 parts of energy goes to produce 1 part energy from biofuel. except Brazil sugar canes oceans of land which is almost breaking even.

biofuel has very big problems with needing huge huge tracts of land, and lots of production costs, world food prices have gone up because of farming for fuel

The energy saving that has potential is all garbage, kitchen waste, and sewage and the most modern places are turning to these sources

all of asia is in smog from burning garbage, choking to sickness many people and death,

without using land that can grow food, garbage and sewage should be used, first

Edit; many people used to talk, in 50's and 60's how the world was getting to over population. lots of talk in media, even. now the world is over populated nobody says it.

everybody on earth wants a big screen TV! and 2 car garage. the world is not under populated or proper populated it is over populated. there is not enough land for food and fuel and nature! biofuels is not the cure for over population; there is no cure, except maybe equal sharing, instead most have nothing and a few have too much

Edited August 18, 2010 by yellow1red1

[alant]

have they perfected the black smoky biofuel then?

on a more serious note where is the investment to ensure biofuels do not damage vehicle components. if they will make it that all you can get is gasahol it surely is right that additives to preserve seals etc are incorporated.

[Caliguy]

HUB!

[Rama]

will that hub be placed next to the fashion hub, the tourist hub, the transportation hub, the medical hub, the education hub, or (last weekend) the movie studio hub? Are any of them near the nana plaza hub?