An Israeli Real Estate mogul partners with Ormat and gene company Evogene to investigate castor oil crops in Africa.
L.L Biofuel Namibia of the Leviev Group and Evogene (announced yesterday) that together with Orfuel, a subsidiary of geothermal power giant Ormat, they will establish a new company focused on the growth of specialized castor plants for use as feedstock for biodiesel. The new company will be headquartered in Namibia, with operations in Namibia and possibly other locations in Africa.
According to the terms of the agreement, the new company will examine various castor varieties in field tests in Namibia, and following the selection of best performing varieties, the new company will work to commercialize and grow the selected varieties on a commercial scale in Namibia, and possibly in other locations in Africa.
Evogene will provide the new company with the castor varieties for evaluation, and will utilize its knowledge and capabilities in plant growth. The Leviev Group will provide access to lands for crop growth in Namibia and logistical infrastructure for the project. In addition, the Leviev Group will contribute its experience and knowledge in establishing projects in Namibia and in other southern African countries.
The castor varieties to be supplied by Evogene will be selected from varieties being developed in a previously announced collaboration between Evogene and Orfuel, initiated in September 2007. Under this collaboration, which has received a grant from the BIRD Foundation (Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation), Evogene and Orfuel are jointly developing non edible plants, such as castor, for biodiesel commercial production.
A special focus of this collaboration is that these plants can be grown commercially in non arable areas.
About Castor Oil
Castor is a high oil yielding crop and there are vast non arable lands available in Namibia that potentially could be used for this purpose. Thus it is anticipated that the cost of biodiesel feedstock produced using specialized castor crops grown in Namibia is expected to be significantly lower than cost of biodiesel produced from crops currently used for this purpose, such as soybean and canola.
“This collaboration fits well into Evogene’s business model in the field of biodiesel, and constitutes an additional stage towards commercialization of the plants developed through the joint project with Orfuel in one of the potential target locations,” stated Ofer Haviv, Evogene’s president and CEO. “We are convinced that with our extensive capabilities in plants together with the vast experience of the Leviev Group in Africa, we will be able to develop improved feedstock addressing the needs of the alternative fuel industry.”
Leviev Group is already active in Namibia through mining, diamond refinement, constructions, infrastructure and agriculture. Evogene is a leading developer of improved plants for the ag-biotech and biofuel industries.
(Image credit: Kristina’s Oil)
[…] and Clal Energy. The company also received critical research and development funding in 2010 from BIRD — the Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation, a joint fund of the U.S. Department of Energy and Israel’s Ministry of National […]
Hello sir,
I appreciate your contributions towards the finding local solutions to the local problem using local resources to the benefit of the locality.I’m a farmer acquired about 500Ha of land in my village purposely for castor plantation,currently I have 6000 seeds to be planted in the next planting season,I wish if can go into partnership on this project,let me know how it would work.
Thanks with regard for your anticipated co- operation
Theophilus.
we wish to assTo
Mr.Anand-DGM,Marketing
Madras Fertilizers ltd
manali,Chennai
Respected Sir, ,
We wish to introduce our selves as a company promoting contract farming with castor fuel crop with a state of art land management.
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http://www.eocosolve.co.uk ECOSOLVE LIMITED, U.K
Developers of natural turf for various football, cricket, golf courses etc in U.K
contribution to social and environmental improvement
Ecosol’s state of the art land management practices
CLEAN UP POLLUTION
ADD VALUE TO AGRICULTURE WASTE
CREATE JOBS
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“LOCALISATION” is the ECOSOL BUZZ WORD
A Local solution to a local problem using local resources to the benefit of the locality.
Undertake large and complete phase of Castor plantations in India, wherein in we are operate as a land management to the refinery management company
Our expertise has been shared in most of the companies in India & worldwide; In Tamilnadu we have 3 major Joint-venture operations.
Our targeted area is 30000 acres for coming season
We wish to be associated with your company in castor contract farming Program .
We wish to meet you and discuss the business opportunities we can proceed together.
Looking forward for your valuable queries.
Thanking you.
Yours truly,
Vishnu Das
Brand manager -projects
Mob. +91 9789490220
Tel. +91 422 4385737,2647713
Email: [email protected]
Very cool, I build biodiesel processors which turn waste vegetable oil into biodiesel. I have been speaking with companies in Ghana about the same types of stuff. It is really amazing how simple the process is, as well as saving the customer $2-3 per gallon at the pumps. Algae biodiesel looks even more promising. We just need to keep moving in the right direction.