Joint venture to build 20 biocrude reactors in Haiti to supply power and fuel to energy-strapped country

In Haiti, Haytian Tractor & Equipment has signed an agreement with Sustainable Power Corporation to install 20 bio crude reactors and supply power and fuel in Les Cayes and Petit-Goave.

Haytian Tractor & Equipment Co. S.A. (“ HayTrac”), which will own 10 percent of the joint venture, said that it expects to use jatropha produced in Haiti to produce the bio crude, and expects ultimately to expand to include algae as a feedstock.

Sustainable Power has licensed the “Rivera process”, developed by US Sustainable Energy, for the production of biocrude. Amspec Senior VP Jim Ford, who serves on the board of the Americas Committee of the International Federation of Inspection Agencies, has recently joined the board of Sustainable Power.

US Sustainable Energy has been successfully testing up to 1,000 gallons per day of soybean-based bio-crude production at its Baytown, TX facility, on an initial production line with a 3 Mgy capacity. The fuels will be certified at an on-site facility by Amspec.

The biocrude producer is also awaiting lab results from a test of biocrude production using 20 pounds of algae as a feedstock, and is reportedly in discussions with a variety of potential algae suppliers.

Above: Algae oil igniting in an informal test at the Baytown Green Energy Consortium facility in Baytown, TX, which uses the Rivera process to produce biocrude from algae. Photo: J. Lane.

Haiti is home to Jatropha Pepinye program in Terrier Rouge, Haiti, which has aimed to encourage jatropha cultivation as a means of stabilizing incomes and reducing deforestation caused by the use of firewood and charcoal for fuel. More than 70 percent of the island has a “high” erosion risk due to deforestation.

“It has the potential, because it can be grown virtually anywhere, of creating a really positive economic impact in rural Haiti,” said Kathleen Robbins, Director of Bioenergy Projects for GreenMicrofinance. Robbins said that jatropha could be used to reduce the amount of energy imported for transportation purposes, or for supplying electricity locally for communities that are not part of the electric grid.

Above: Moss growing on power lines in a Haitian village. Many villages received power during the 1980s, but local generators have been idled due to mechanical breakdowns, and the high price of fuel for the generators. Photo: K. Robbins.

“The nursery is producing high quality jatropha seedlings in time for the beginning of the rainy season in NE Haiti this spring,” said Robbins. “Also, as part of the mission of Jatropha Pepinye, it will be providing training and support to a local farmers’ cooperative, the Petit Planters of Terrier Rouge, in conjunction with a local agronomy school along other interested farmers in the area.” The project’s jatropha nursery is located next to the UN and agriculture school.

Above: The Jatropha Pepinye project in Terrier Rouge, Haiti. Jatropha Pepinye is growing jatropha seedlings in a nursery, in cooperation with the Petit Planters of Perrier Rouge, a local farmers’ cooperative. Photo: K. Robbins.

The Jatropha Pepinye team is projecting yields of up to 2.50 metric tonnes of jatropha per hectare upon maturity. Local grower income is around one dollar per day, so the multi-year maturation process for jatropha seedlings is a barrier for local growers. The Jatropha

Pepinye is working with local growers to help them inter-crop with other oil-producing plants, and is developing a prepayment plan, during the jatropha maturation process.

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