The Malaysian biofuel company BIONAS is introducing a very interesting new Jatropha application. BIONAS has created a high-tech polarization powder out of Jatropha to improve coal usage and reduce pollution from the emissions pro­duced during coal burning. The material is called Bio-Energy Emission Solution (BEES) powder. The powder is either solved in water or sprinkled directly on the coal and burned directly with the coal. The power plant realizes a coal saving rate of 20-25%. Furthermore, the following emission reductions are obtained:

• Smog, sulfur dioxide and poisonous materials: 50%.

• Unburned coal residue carbon: 20-50%.

• Ashes emission into atmosphere: 15-30%.

• Nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides emission: 20-50%.

After using BEES for 15-45 days, the carbon and dirt deposit on different parts of the boiler/furnace will automatically drop off, and thus improve the thermal con­ductivity and the heat transfer performance. This will reduce boilers shutdown times, reduce maintenance times, and reduce tremendously the maintenance costs.

BEES also has the following additional advantages: the burner firepower is increased, the heat exchange efficiency is enhanced and emissions are reduced, and equipment corrosion is reduced due to a high — and low-temperature differ­ential. Therefore, equipment maintenance costs are drastically reduced.

Usually the burning plant needs to be closed down once a month to clean the chimney of carbon deposits. Using BEES, the carbon deposit in the chimney is much reduced and is very easy to clean. Downtime for a power plant is very expensive. Using BEES the overall downtime can be reduced significantly.

BEES can be applied as follows:

• 1 kg of BEES can be mixed into 15 tonnes of coal in the coal grinder. The BEES must be ground, mixed, and blended completely with coal before the mix reaches the combustion chamber.

• 1 liter of BEES can be added to 1000 liters of water. The vaporized water mix blends with preheated air. This air-fuel mixture is sprayed on the coal and is then forced at high pressure into the boiler where it rapidly catches fire.

The moral of this story is that if you have a good-sized plantation producing crude Jatropha oil, seedcake, and leaves, finding customers and producing income is the smallest problem you have.

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