Nature Alert: South Korea to produce wood pellet fuel in Indonesia

Monday, 9 March 2009

South Korea to produce wood pellet fuel in Indonesia

personal note: Makes you wonder what will be next.

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Seoul, March 8 : South Korea has signed an agreement with Indonesia to produce wood pellets that are cheaper and cleaner to burn than fossil fuels, WAM reported.

Korea forest service and Indonesian forest ministry signed a pact Friday to keep aside 200,000 hectares of forestland in Indonesia's Kalimantan Island to produce wood pellets starting 2010, the report said Saturday.

The Daejeon-based state forestry service said the deal signed on the sidelines of President Lee Myung-bak's visit to Indonesia gives the South Korean government a free 99-year lease on the Kalimantan Island to implement the project.

The initiative will benefit Indonesia with foreign investments and new jobs.

South Korea would provide administrative support, build pellet-making facilities and assist in the everyday operations to be carried out by the private companies, according to the pact.

The total fuel production would be determined only after assessing the useable plants on the Island. The process involves both cutting and planting trees, the report said.

Wood pellets are made from finely ground and compressed wood that is cheap to use, have relatively good fuel qualities and do not release as much greenhouse gas as refined fuel products.

The cylinder-shaped pellets on average have lower heat value than diesel fuel, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and kerosene, but could provide a 99-sq-meter living space with adequate heat for 1.8 million won ($1,160) per year.

This is better than the 4.2 million won needed when burning diesel, 2.0 million won for LNG and 3.0 million won for kerosene. The pellets have also been found to produce 12 times less greenhouse gases than diesel fuel.

At present, South Korea's wood pellet consumption is small and generally limited to use in some rural communities and greenhouses. It has only one operational wood pellet facility, with two more to be opened this year.

http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-90.html

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.