Production of Sustainable Bio-fuels, agro-inputs and animal feeds in the Mt Kenya area

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Production of Sustainable Bio-fuels, agro-inputs and animal feeds in the Mt Kenya area

HBV Bio-fuels

Under the banner HBV Bio-fuels, the HSHC facility has undertaken the task to produce high quality bio-fuels from seeds harvested from the indigenous tree Croton Megalocarpus. With an estimated 5 million mature trees growing in the Mt Kenya and Aberdares Mountain Range area, Croton feedstock supply is highly abundant.

HBV Bio-fuels along with HSHC and the communities living adjacent to the forests, have set out to utilize this opportunity to undertake the following:

Convert indigenous non-toxic seeds to positive energy
An integrated approach for rural reforestation, income and energy
Create a renewable energy source with major GHG mitigating component

Current state of Business

The facility currently produces Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO) which can replace heavy diesel oil and Bio-diesel which can replace light diesel oil. The production volume for these fuel sources is 4,500L/day and 600L/day respectively.

HBV Bio-fuels main objective is to scale up these operations to 10,000L of SVO per day and 3,000L of bio-diesel per day. The quality of the bio-fuels produced will also be greatly improved by introducing a better filtration process to the production line, this will allow for a higher quality product that meets international standards.

Proposed Scale up

HBV Bio-fuels intends to undertake the following upgrades to the existing bio-fuel facility.

1. Upgrade to SVO production process:

The current SVO producing equipment is old and manually operated. This results in slow production process, low quality and high wastage.

The new process will instal a higher capacity seed press, automated process with conveyors replacing manual transfer systems. This will increase quantity, improve efficiency and produce high quality SVO.

2. Installation of good quality Bio-diesel Processor:

The facility currently produces bio-diesel, but due to the lack of proper equipment, quantity and quality are both unsatisfactory.

HBV Bio-fuels intends to replace old equipment with a state of the art bio-diesel processor. This processor will produce Bio-diesel of top grade quality at the rate of approx 3,000L/day.

3. Increase feedstock collection:

Feedstock collection at the moment is from the farming community in the immediate vicinity. HSHC has set up 5 collection centers where farmers and Croton seed collectors can deliver their seeds for purchase by HBV Bio-fuels. It is then transported to site once the storage facilities at these collection centers are full.

The upgraded collection strategy will see 15 more collection centers established with storage facilities of up to 70tons, up from only 20 tons.

4. Tree planting campaign:

Currently HBV bio-fuels have a tree planting initiative with the Community Forest Associations (CFAs). This initiative consists of the planting of croton seedlings on HSHC members’ farms and other interested farmers.

The new upgraded tree-planting initiative will see tree nurseries established at each feedstock collection center and seedlings heavily distributed among communities living adjacent to forests.

HBV Bio-fuels will also team up with the Kenya Forest Service to identify and plant trees within forests. With all these avenues for tree planting, HBV plans on planting 200,000 Croton trees annually.

5. By-products Production Process:

Currently, by-products from the production process are converted into simple animal feeds and organic manure which is sold at the site store.

The demand for agro-inputs and solid biomass fuel in the area is high and HBV bio-fuels intends to take advantage of this niche market. By-products such as glycerol, husks, seedcake and waste-oil will be converted into fertilizer, industrial briquettes, protein rich animal feed and organic pesticides. These products will be distributed and sold at the site and at the local stores.

6. Research & Development:

An R&D facility will enable HBV Bio-fuels to constantly test products to ensure top quality and also undertake a product development in order to improve products. Ideas on product development include bio-diesel and bio-kerosene blends, higher calorific briquettes and development of bio-kerosene cook-stoves and lamps.

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Production of Sustainable Bio-fuels, agro-inputs and animal feeds in the Mt Kenya area HBV Bio-fuels Under the banner HBV Bio-fuels, the HSHC facility has undertaken the task to produce high quality bio-fuels from seeds harvested from the indigenous tree Croton Megalocarpus. With an estimated...