Clenergen India Secures Long-Term Land Lease in for Beema Bamboo Plantation for Biomass Energy

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Clenergen India Private Limited (Chennai, Tamil Nadu), a wholly owned subsidiary of Clenergen Corporation (OTC:CRGE) (Coral Springs, Florida), announced that it has obtained a long-term lease on an 850-acre parcel of plantation land in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu. The land will be used to cultivate Beema bamboo as feedstock for biomass energy.

Detailed survey work has started for the design of the irrigation system required for commercial planting. The land has been leased from the Emberumanar Jeer Trust, which is controlled by the state government of Tamil Nadu. The lease on a second parcel of plantation land of 1,200 acres is expected to be finalized October 30 with a similar trust. Contour mapping is under way, which must be completed before the lease can be signed.

Clenergen signed a memorandum of understanding with Growmore Biotech Limited (Hosur, Tamil Nadu) in August this year for the supply of tissue-cultured and nursery-hardened Beema bamboo.

Beema bamboo is a member of the bamboo family, which in turn belongs to the larger grass family. Bamboo is among the fastest growing plant groups in the world, with some species growing up to 60 centimeters per day, depending on the local soil and climate conditions. Each plant is capable of producing 10 or more new shoots each year, which can be harvested from the second year of growth. The harvested material has a calorific value of 17 megajoules per kilogram.

Another benefit obtained from Beema bamboo is the ability of the plant to absorb excessive carbon dioxide from the air three to four times more efficiently than other trees. A single mature bamboo tree can absorb as much as 500 kilograms of carbon dioxide. Consequently, the plantations for the biomass plants also would serve a second function as bio-carbon sinks.

The feedstock grown on the new plantations, which are expected to yield 80,000 tons each year, will be used for the biomass gasification power plants that Clenergen is constructing at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu. The first of these units, with a generating capacity of 8 megawatts (MW), is under construction on a 10-acre site that Clenergen has leased. The site will include sufficient area for storage. The firm's biomass plants in Tamil Nadu will have a total output of 16 MW.

Following a detailed investigation of the local soil conditions and availability of water, planting of the Beema bamboo will commence in November this year, with the first harvesting scheduled to take place in 2011. Planting can commence almost immediately, as the bamboo is unaffected by monsoon rains.

Clenergen anticipates that the feedstock obtained from these plantations will be sufficient to supply the requirements of the Tamil Nadu power plants. Until full harvesting capability is reached, the power plants will use biomass wood chips obtained from Prosopis Juliaflora, a thorny tree that can grow up to 10 meters.

Clenergen is a developer and supplier of small- to medium-sized distributed environmental power systems suitable for use by local municipalities and manufacturers. Clenergen holds exclusive rights to certain processes in plant sciences that can enable plants to be genetically modified to suit selected environmental and physical conditions, which can result in increased growth rates of up to 40%.

Biomass in Clenergen's plants is converted to synthetic gas by a chemical combustion process in a large reactor, using low oxygen levels and high temperature and pressure. There is no requirement for any additional materials to disintegrate biomass. The resulting synthetic gas is suitable to power gas turbine generators, such as the Jenbacher gas engines of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) (Fairfield, Connecticut).

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