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Dear visitor and international investor,
We
warmly welcome you, if this is
your first visit to Africabiz
Online - The ultimate newsletter
on trading and investing in 49
sub-Saharan African countries.
If you are a regular and faithful
reader, welcome back.
- PROJECT MANAGEMENT - PART II: WHAT A PROJECT THAT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE A SUCCESS STORY LOOKS LIKE?
In continuation to previous deliveries [75, 76, 78, 80, 81, 82, 86], we introduced in issue 87 Part I of a series about Project Management titled: Project Management: Definitions.
This is really a vast subject that had been covered by thousand of books written by academic people, businessmen and businesswomen and professionals around the world - without ever closing the debate. Indeed, the matter is big and vast, extending into several areas of human life and behaviour: economics, human resources, politics and sociology.
Nevertheless, in line with Africabiz's main objective that is to discuss and debate about "How Emerging Countries Could Bridge the Developing Gap," we will endeavour to sum up and deal with the subject in three successive deliveries, and few thousand words - focusing on the management of developing projects.
Part II: The Essentials to Making a Developing a Project a Success Story is here to review
Many thanks for dropping by and see you here on October 15, 2006.
Dr.
B.M. Quenum
Editor
of AFRICABIZ
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Several business opportunities - component parts of the Integrated Developing Scheme described in Africans, Stop Being Poor! are listed in following table.
| a-
SHEA BUTTER (5,
6, 7,
11, 12,
13)
b- BLUE GOLD (14,
15, 16,
17, 18,
19)
c- FREEZE-DRIED PAPAIN (20,
21, 22
and here)
d-
KENAF (23,
24)
e- VEGETABLE OIL (25,
26, 27,
28)
f- CEREALS (30,
31, 32,
33)
g- FRUITS (34,
35, 36,
37, 38,
39, 40,
42, 43,
44, 45,
46)
h- ESSENTIAL OILS (47,
48, 49,
50, 51,
52)
i- ROOTS & TUBERS (54,
55, 56,
57, 58,
59, 60,
61, 62,
63, 64)
j-
FOWL BREEDING (66,
67, 68,
69, 70,
71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76)
k- FISH FARMING (78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87)
l- BIOMASS ENERGY (89, 90, |
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BIOMASS ENERGY: PART
I - INTRODUCTION TO BIOMASS ENERGY APPLIED TO AFRICAN COUNTRIES' DEVELOPING
The several business opportunities/projects above outlined need energy - from
gas, wood, or electricity - to be implemented. Without the availability of
cheap and sustainable energy, projects cannot be successfully carried out.
Electricity is the most used energy, which could be generated from several systems such as, atomic reactors, hydro-power (dam), oil, coal or gas powered electricity generators. Oil could be vegetable oil or fossil oil (petroleum). The same for gas.
Nowadays, fossil gas and oil and hydropower are the most used on grand scale to generating electricity. Some Western European countries, the United States of America, Japan and China had established atomic reactors to generating electricity. However, the construction costs of atomic reactors and hydropower dams require substantial financial means far beyond the capability of most African countries. And the procurement costs of fossil oil or gas are prohibitive for African countries deprived of oil fields.
- RENEWABLE ENERGY HAS A HUGE POTENTIAL TO DEVELOPING AFRICAN COUNTRIES
Renewable energy is "reconstituted" year after year, while natural resources such as oil and coal are finite and nonrenewable. Renewable energy encompasses production of ethanol, biogas, biodiesel, biomass power and industrial process energy. And the utilization of sunshine and wind's power to producing electricity.
Clicking on above listed green links, and reading the briefs, one notices that renewable energy opens door to a vast arrays of economic activities that could indeed strengthen rural economies and therefore the global developing of African nations.
Unfortunately,
currently, not a single African country had devised a strategy to use renewable energy on grand scale as an alternative to fossil, hydropower from big dams and coal generated energy.
If the choice of fossil-powered energy could be considered a "natural" one for countries endowed with mineral fossil resources (coal and oil), it is simply an aberration for countries that have no fossil natural resources - but do have access to plenty of sunshine, wind and vegetable to tap into.
Currently, most of the time, in African countries, industrial concerns are located in the vicinity of big cities leaving the countryside bared of
industrial plants to transform crops and livestock into valued added products because it is too costly to establish thousands of kilometers of landlines to distribute electricity (generated from "classic" sources such as oil, hydropower, and coal) to rural areas.
In the contrary, the use of renewable energy would bring on-the-spot energy to African countryside and facilitate the installation of industrial concerns to transforming crops and livestock to added valued products. That strategic choice would help increase rural folks revenues and the global wealth of African nations.
Indeed, based on the vast arrays of opportunities described in briefs related to the green links above outlined, one can assert that the use of renewable energy is the obvious answer to supplying energy to rural areas and quickly bridge the developing gap. Subsequently, it would help stooping rural exodus, decrease nations' imports on oil, avoid use of highly toxic fuel additives, reduce air and water pollution, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- BIOMASS ENERGY IS THE PERFECT CHOICE TO DEVELOPING RURAL AREAS
This delivery starts a new series about biomass energy. Biomass helps generate renewable energy. A simple definition of Biomass reads as follows: Plant material, vegetation, agricultural or animal wastes used as fuel or energy source.
That definition gives a broad idea of the great potential that biomass represents to producing "on-the-spot" energy.
Common sources of biomass are (1) agricultural wastes, such as cereals crops' stalks,
pineapple plants leaves, straw, seed hulls, sugarcane leavings, bagasse, nutshells, and manure from
cattle, poultry, and hogs; (2) wood materials, such as wood or bark, sawdust,
timber slash, and mill scrap; (3) municipal wastes, such as waste paper and yard
clippings; and (4) energy crops, such as poplars, kenaf (23, 24), willows, switchgrass, alfalfa,
prairie bluestem, corn (starch), and oil-seeds plants. Indeed, biomass potential to developing a nation is infinite and highly renewable.
That is the reason why the double-digit growth rate generating Strategy
for African Nations has oil seeds plants (to producing vegetable oils) as
central component part; because industrial vegetable oils could be used as fuel
to power electricity generating sets and facilities, motors vehicles and tractors
for agricultural development instead of imported oil.
Next delivery October
15, 2006 Issue 90 deals with the production of biogas from biomass.
| MORE
ON BIOMASS ENERGY |
1-
Energy from Biomass: A Review of Combustion and Gasification Technologies
by Peter Quaak, Harrie Knoef, and Hubert E. Stassen
2- Biomass for Renewable Energy, Fuels, and Chemicals
by Donald L. Klass
3- 21st Century Complete Guide to Biofuels and Bioenergy
by U.S. Government Department of Energy Alternative Fuel Research (CD-ROM - Sep 28, 2003)
4- Industrial Uses of Biomass Energy
by Frank Rosillo-Calle, Sergio V. Bajay, and Harry Rothman
5-
Biomass for Energy, Industry and Environment
by G. Grassi
6-
Energy from the Biomass
(Proceedings of the International Conference on Biomass Hel in Venice, Italy, 25-29 March 1985) by W. Palz (Library Binding - Dec 1990) |
7- Biomass energy
A monograph (Texas Engineering Experiment Station monograph series)
8- Biomass energy projects, planning and management:
Pergamon policy studies on energy
9- Biomass Energy - Data, Analysis and Trends (Proceedings)
by Iea
10- A European network to coordinate information exchange between national biomass energy programmes on agricultural and forestry biomass
Phase 1, final report : December 1995
11- Biomass: Energy from Plants And Animals (Fueling the Future)
by Amanda De La Garza
12- Sustainable Use of Forest Biomass for Energy
A Synthesis With Focus on the Baltic And Nordic Region (Managing Forest Ecosystems)
by Dominik Roser, Antti Asikainen, Karsten Raulund-rasmussen, and Inge Stupak
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Acrobat Reader is available here
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