The attraction of bioenergy crops as a source of energy are that they can be produced in many

regions, can be converted into high-energy solid, liquid or gaseous forms, and most importantly

has the potential to be a carbon neutral source of fuel.

With the increased focus over the past several years, on growing crops for the bioenergy sector,

dedicated energy crops are now considered to be great sources of biomass for producing

advanced biofuels because of their potential to provide high yields of biofuels per unit of land

even if grown on land that has low productivity for producing conventional crops and with low

fertilizer input application.

Many crops can also sequester more soil carbon per unit of land than conventional crops and

lead to considerably large savings in life-cycle greenhouse emissions relative to oil, coal and gas,

while reducing soil erosion and nitrogen leaching.

Biomass and Bioenergy Off-Take Markets

Mark Abell explains that buyers of biomass crops

can be divided into different “tiers,” with Tier 1

being those who need raw materials, and Tier 2

representing the sector that requires refined

biomass products. Tier 3 represents industrial

users of refined biomass products, while Tier 4 are

those who produce products made from refined

biomass materials.

In all tiers, there are energy and non-energy

sector uses for biomass crops. Bio-heat and bio-

power, and biofuel for transportation are all energy

uses, while the non-energy sectors include not

only animal bedding and animal feed but plastics

and fertilizer industries, as well as bio-

pharmaceuticals dyes and pigments.

As new markets for biomass crops continue to develop, with the larger energy markets now

playing catch-up with the supply of biomass crops, as a producer, we have seen many more

options open up in the market place to capitalise on.

Commercial Scale Modelling

Ecotech Alliance’s research and development team are contributing to the development of

bioenergy crops with efficient modelling and applications that can be applied to large scale

commercial crops. The need to understand the relationship between the environmental

conditions and the growth of bioenergy grasses and crops and how the different environmental

factors control it are an important part of our modelling.

Our models can estimate and predict the yield and stability of crops at various locations and on a

large commercial scale. Obviously you cannot grow these crops everywhere. There are certain

environmental conditions that favour them to grow in certain parts of the world and our modelling

helps to calculate the return on crop yield and return on capital investment.

Pakchong Hybrid Napier Grass

Ecotech Alliance management has been working with an established network of farmers and co-

operatives and is encouraging land owners/plantation managers with land availability of at least

200 hectares or more to consider the Pakchong Hybrid Napier Grass as an attractive energy

crop. The Pakchong has been proven to yield higher energy than other types of Napier grass and

is ideal as feedstock for biomass power plants as well as a high protein cattle feed.

The Super Grass was developed by Dr. Krailas Kiyothong,

animal nutritionist and plant breeder of the Department of

Livestock Development in Pakchong, Nakhon Ratchasima

province, Thailand. He developed Napier Pakchong 1 by

crossing the Pennisetum purpureum with Pearl Millet

(Pennisetum glaucum)

This shift toward Napier grass in Thailand has created many opportunities for increased

revenues for Ecotech Alliance and may create business opportunities for Japanese companies

that have invested in Thailand with expertise in biofuels. An example of this is Toyota who has

been working on creating a bioethanol fuel for automobiles from Napier grass, with an eye on

commercializing the technology as early as 2020.

Dedicated Bioenergy Crop Experience

Because Ecotech Alliance and our co-

operatives have experience in handling large

volumes of biomass through dedicated

bioenergy crop experience, and expertise in

propagation through crop planting and

establishment of projects, we have been

engaged by many clients on a broad basis.

Through this broad experience of Ecotech

Alliance’s employees and management team

we have the skills necessary to implement

successful dedicated crops or agroforestry

operations:

• Screening and selection of types of material to be grown

• Agronomic practices and soil characteristic

• Means and methods of economical land preparation, planting and cultivation

• Probable soil supplementation based on crop and soil, including fertilization applications.

• Probable irrigation or drainage requirements.

• Best methods for harvesting, delivery, and/or storage.

Ecotech Alliance Pty Ltd 8 Kings Park Avenue, Crawley, Perth, WA 6009Australia Tel: +61 (8) 9467 4004

www.ecotechalliance.com