Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Arundo Projects Under Development

Michael Birch, managing director of Orapa Ltd., based in Athens, Tenn is working with South Carolinans to license and commercialize the patented propagation and planting technology for Arundo donax. A project in Florida is looking at planting 20,000 to 40,000 acres of Arundo for a biomass power plant using gasification technology, Progress Energy Florida, a utility company, signed an agreement in mid-2006 to purchase electricity from the proposed 130 megawatt biomass power plant in central Florida using a variety of Arundo trademarked as E-grass. The original agreement was with Biomass Investment Group Inc., which has since become part of the Innovative Energy Group with main offices in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Birch has also been involved in discussions with oil and chemical companies in Texas that are interested in exploring Arundo’s potential for phyto remediation of contaminated soils. Several Central American countries are developing Arundo projects to grow biomass for power, many of which have high electrical energy costs due to a lack of local energy sources. Other projects are underway in Europe and Australia. Birch expects to be making further announcements this spring on other projects in development.

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