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Papua New Guinea Biofuels Activities

Outline map of Papua New Guinea.

Increased interest in palm and coconut oil as biodiesel feedstock as well as increasing prices of fossil fuels are accelerating biofuels development in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The government is working on a strategy for positioning PNG as a major biofuels producer.

PNG is one of the world's largest producers of palm oil (far behind Malaysia and Indonesia), and the government actively promotes the expansion of oil-palm plantations, often to the detriment of the rain forests and local communities. The plantations now are largely under the control of large companies such as New Britain Palm Oil and Golden Agri-Resources (part of Malaysian Sinar Mas). Cargill is increasing its investment in oil-palm plantations and mills in PNG as well. Annual production of palm oil is about 300,000 tonnes or 1.4% of the global CPO production (Van Gelder 2002). The coconut oil industry is relatively small, approximately 50,000 tonnes per year.

There is no information on biodiesel production and consumption in PNG. However, there is a widespread use of straight vegetable oil (SVO) or mixture of SVO and petro-diesel. Many local suppliers of fuel often blend filtered coconut oil with diesel, including Unitech in Lae, which has been successfully testing biodiesel blends in engines as part of their mechanical engineering research (Island Business). SVO is used by private vehicle owners and government fleets. Two shipping companies based in Rabaul have been buying coconut oil from the long-established Copra Products Ltd mill at Malaguna for the past couple of years and have largely replaced diesel fuel for their ships (Kokonut Pacific 2007).

In PNG, SVO and biodiesel are the alternative fuels of choice due to feedstock availability and the diesel-driven market. However, PNG is also interested in experimenting with ethanol. A cassava ethanol plant is under development in Launakalana, in the Central Province. The developer, South Korean company Changhae Tapioka, will select varietals from a pilot growing program and 43,000 acres when the plantation development effort is complete (Biofuels Digest 2008).

Sources

  1. "Agrofuels in Asia - Fuelling poverty, conflict, deforestation, and climate change," Almut H. Ernsting, Seedling, GRAIN, July 2007
  2. "The palm-oil–biodiesel nexus," Seedling, GRAIN, July 2007
  3. "Island Business - Coconut oil, a serious commodity option," October 2007
  4. Kokonut Pacific Pty Ltd., Coconut power in PNG, October 2007
  5. Jan Willem van Gelder, "Australian economic links with the oil palm sector of Papua New Guinea," December 2002 (PDF 118 KB) Download Adobe Reader.
  6. Biofuels Digest, February 2008