The Biofuel Partnership Ltd carefully considered the issue of food versus fuel in the conception of the BioCube. Sandy Kelly, the designer and “father” of the BioCube has spent the last twenty years in Asia and knows from his own experience the impact on the local communities of diminishing food resources.
In designing the BioCube we focused on developing a machine that is flexible in the feedstock it uses, yet is primarily geared toward non-crop feedstocks such as Jatropha Curcas and Indian Beech, as these are totally removed from the food chain. Jatropha can prosper on poor quality soil that wouldn’t sustain most food crops; it also permits inter-cropping so that farmers can benefit from a continuous yield.
Whilst the BioCube can be used anywhere in the world, our emphasis is in the tropical zones that coincide with the world’s most impoverished areas and where these non-edible, high oil bearing fruits grow naturally.
The BioCube is designed to produce biodiesel (as distinct from biofuel) from energy efficient feedstocks that don’t feature in the food chain, and that can grow on low quality soil that wouldn’t sustain a food crop.
By way of contrast – and what attracts most of the headlines – is biofuel production that uses less efficient food chain feedstocks such as Soya, Corn, Sugarcane and Rapeseed, mainly in developed countries and for ethanol production.
With green values inherent in the design of the BioCube, it has many other advantages that deliver social and environmental benefits.
It processes biodiesel in a continuous process at or close to the place of harvesting, reducing the carbon footprint in transportation to and from the machine. The scalability of the BioCube solution – you can use as many or as few as you need on site – allows users to generate income years before a large processing plant would be viable. The BioCube runs on it’s own biodiesel. It is highly efficient, producing biodiesel at volumes equivalent to much larger processing plants. All of this significantly reduces the carbon footprint of the BioCube biodiesel production process compared to conventional methods.
The BioCube is a powerful solution to the need for sustainable wealth creation in developing communities. It generates a continuous source of affordable energy that can bring prosperity, enhance the community and benefit the planet – without competing with food stocks.