AFRICABIZ VOL 2 - ISSUE: 117
January 14 - April 15, 2010
Previous Issue
Editor: Dr. Bienvenu-Magloire Quenum
Click here for contact & support console

Featured Article Countries Briefs Live News On Africa Support Africabiz Online

Contact Information Synopsis Rss Feed Sample A Word From the Editor Business Opportunities

FrontDoor Your Feedback Freebie For You Control Your Desktop

A WORD FROM THE EDITOR

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.

- ARE THE ICELANDERS MAKING HISTORY?

In a previous delivery the dire economic situation existing currently in The Republic of Iceland - heavily hit by the financial crisis, had been briefly exposed.

The referenced article stating, the actual plight of Iceland is an interesting case-study, to compare with African countries's ones, submitted since the mid 1980s to Adjustment Structural Programs (SAP).

On October 7, 2009, Birgitta J�nsd�ttir, a leading member of the Icelandic parliament has called for the country to declare a debt moratorium and stop to pay the $6 billion which the British and Netherlands governments are seeking to extort from Iceland with the help of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and European Commission in Brussels.

The "revolt"of Icelanders is daily gaining momentum, and the president of the country, Olafur Grimsson's refusal to sign the unpopular IceSave bill into law on January 5, 2010 plunged Iceland into crisis. Indeed, opposition leaders - and in fact the majority of Iceland people - are ready to push for the referendum even if that would jeopardize the adhesion to the European Union.

And of course, "The International Community" is lobbying to stop the referendum. A very interesting case to watch.

Would the Icelanders buy into the trick or would they go ahead holding the referendum to stop paying debts they are not responsible for engineering - and therefore make history? Let us wait and see.

Anyway, the problem is no more circumvented to Iceland. Other developed countries, Greece, Portugal, Spain and many other countries from the eastern part of the European union are almost in the same boat as Iceland, reeling under "colossal" debts and huge budget's deficits. So now, African nations are no more the only ones shackled by crippling debts.

Click here to read about The End of an Era: Part I: The Collapse of a Predatory Economic System

- VIP MEMBERSHIP IS LIVE RUNNING

The VIP Members section is now running live. More on the matter is available at following link that is the permanent announcement page concerning VIP-Membership. Visiting said page, you will always take notice of what is showing live on the confidential newsletter - Inside Africa & Insights About Africa - dedicated to VIP Members.

- SERVICES AND PRODUCTS FROM Dr. QUENUM & ASSOCIATES / BUSINESSAFRICA (TM)

List of Products and Solutions to trading and investing in and out emerging nations - and particularly in sub-Saharan African nations - is here to review.

We draw your attention to the Jobs & Projects' platform that assists first, project-owners to tender for the best experts to carry out projects at very competitive costs, and, second, job-seekers to publish for free Résumés/CV to attract project-owners attention.

The Free and Pay-Per-Click advertisement platform is also the cheapest way to advertise for your business and drive traffic to your website.

- Contributor's Guidelines are here to review. Your contribution on "How emerging nations and particularly African countries / entrepreneurs could bridge the developing gap" is welcome.

Your feedback / objection / contribution is welcome. Visit WorldWide BizCenter, and choose General Information (as topic) to create a thread for discussion. On the top of the WorldWide BizCenter page, there is a HELP link to assist you making an efficient use of the discussion board. This link also is useful

Many thanks for dropping by and see you here on April 15, 2010

Dr. B.M. Quenum
Editor of AFRICABIZ

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN AFRICA

- Several business opportunities - component parts of the Integrated Developing Scheme described in Africans, Stop Being Poor! are listed in following table.

1-SHEA BUTTER (5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13) 2- BLUE GOLD (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19) 3- FREEZE-DRIED PAPAIN (20, 21, 22 and here) 4- KENAF (23, 24) 5- VEGETABLE OIL (25, 26, 27, 28) 6- CEREALS (30, 31, 32, 33) 7- FRUITS (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46) 8- ESSENTIAL OILS (47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)

9- ROOTS & TUBERS (54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64) 10- FOWL BREEDING (66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76) 11- FISH FARMING (78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87) 12- BIOMASS ENERGY (89, 90, 91, 92) 13- SUGAR CANE & PRODUCTS (93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99/100, 101, 102) 14- LIVESTOCK (103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112 15- MISCELLANEOUS (113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118

- MISCELLANEOUS SERIES:RENEWABLE ENERGY: PART V: STRAW AS RAW MATERIAL TO PRODUCING BIO-GAS /LIQUID FUEL

In developing countries, and in African nations in particular, straw, hay and leaves - by-products of cereals's and tropical fruits's crops - are not used as raw materials to generate additional revenues.

For instance, a high proportion (if not the whole available volume) of maize's, corn's, rice's, and sorghum's straw and hay undergoes field burning. That is an astonishing waste of raw material to generating electricity when energy crisis is currently hampering industrial production in most African countries. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

A previous delivery of this series, available here, briefly described the potential of hey/straw as raw material to producing energy/electricity and a table exposes sorghum plantations' yield with regards cultivars/species. And the following link exposes the economics about a 200 ha plantation to produce 1000 metric tons of sorghum-grain, and 2360 metric tons of hay/straw/sticks. Here is exposed the production of electricity using sorghum straw/hay/sticks as fuel/raw material/feedstock. Click here to see an animation titled: From Biomass to SunDiesel

The current delivery deals with the production of bio-fuel resulting from the exploitation of 200 ha of sorghum plantation.

- BRIEFS ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY TO USING STRAW AS FEEDSTOCK TO PRODUCING ELECTRICITY

As exposed here, the exploitation of 200ha of a sorghum plantation yield 2360 metric tons of straw and sticks a year.

Technology had been developed to convert straw into synthetic gas that can be used to produce electricity or liquid fuel.

In the gasification reactor, straw is reduced to small particles that are converted into a mixture of vaporized gasses that can be used to produce synthetic liquid gas.

60 gallons of liquid fuel could be produced per ton of straw. That is considering tonnage of straw produced exploiting 200ha of sorghum plantation as exposed on above outlined link: [60*2360=141,600 gallons] or 536,012 liters of liquid bio-fuel.

Just imagine that a developing country puts in place a scheme to develop 200,000 hectares of sorghum plantation. The resulting liquid bio-fuel production would be in the range of 536 million liters a year, that could be used to power generating equipment to provide electricity to small industrial units in rural areas.

The scheme to producing bio-fuel from sorghum plantation's straw can be tailored in two ways: (1) To have a a gasification unit moving from farm to farm to produce bio-fuel; or (2) to provide small gasification units to group of farmers to do the job.

This link reviews small scale bio-gas/ liquid fuel gasification available technology. And here the use of bio-gas as a strategic source of developing is exposed.

More on biomass energy is available at following link: (89, 90, 91, 92)

Instructions are given here to assist you manufacturing make your own bio-gas bio-fuel producing unit.

Next issue available on April 15, 2010 will consider the usage of all kind of waste straw as to producing energy using a outstanding technology/equipment..

MORE ON BIOGAS

1- 21st Century Essential Guide to Methane and Biogas Landfill Methane and Manure for Energy, AgStar Program, Recovery and Mitigation, Greenhouse Gas Emissions by World Spaceflight News (CD-ROM - Mar 5, 2005) 2- Running a Biogas Program by David Fulford 3- Biogas From Waste by Dieter Deublein and Angelika Steinhauser (Hardcover - Apr. 18, 2008) 4- A Chinese Biogas Manual: Popularising Technology in the Countryside by Ariane van Buren 5- The biogas handbook by David House 6- Biogas: What It Is, How It Is Made, How to Use It by Food and Agriculture Organization of the (Paperback - Jan 1985)

7- Biogas systems: Principles and applications by K. M Mittal 8- Biogas: The Indian NGOs' Experience 9- Landfilling of Waste: Biogas by T. Christensen, T. H. Christensen, R. Cossu, and R. Stegmann (Hardcover - Jan 15, 1996) 10- Building a Better Biogas Unit (Better Framing Series, No 32/F3028) by Food and Agriculture Organization of the (Paperback - Jun 1987) 11- Winning Our Energy Independence by S. David Freeman (Paperback - Sept. 7, 2007) 12- China, azolla propagation and small-scale biogas technology Report on an FAO/UNDP study tour to the People's Republic of China by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Paperback - 1978)

Interested parties - private African and international investors / companies, government agencies, international development agencies - to make contact through the Free Access Support Console available at this link

Contact through the support console will get quickest reply from Africabiz Online's staff, than contact by emails. Click here for contact information. Be advised that first contact should be through the support console to be followed by phone calls. If you are a VIP-Member, use VIP-Members Support Console available here. Before you consult please click here to review this clarification

COUNTRIES BRIEFS