The BioCube Corporation Ltd carefully considered the issue of food versus fuel in the conception of the BioCube.
In designing the BioCube™ we focused on developing a machine that is flexible in the feedstock it uses, yet is targeted toward non-crop feedstocks such as Jatropha Curcas and Pongamia and waste stream feedstock material such as waste coconut, waste vegetable oil (WVO) or waste food crops. It is estimated 10-15% of all food crops are wasted through spoiling, pest infestation or disease. Plants like Jatropha can prosper on poor quality soil that wouldn’t sustain most food crops.
Whilst the BioCube™ can be used anywhere in the world, the design emphasis is for robust, independent operation in the tropical zones that coincide with the world’s most impoverished areas, where countries are net importers of expensive fossil oil and where these non-edible, high oil bearing fruits grow naturally.
The BioCube™ is designed to produce biodiesel (as distinct from biofuel) from energy efficient feedstocks that don’t feature in the food chain, and that can grow on low quality soil that wouldn’t sustain a food crop.
By way of contrast – and what attracts most of the headlines – is biofuel production that uses less efficient food chain feedstocks such as Soya, Corn, Sugarcane and Rapeseed, mainly in developed countries and for ethanol production.
With green values inherent in the design of the BioCube, it has many other advantages that deliver social and environmental benefits.
It processes biodiesel in a continuous process at or close to the place of harvesting, reducing the carbon footprint in transportation to and from the machine. The scalability of the BioCube™ solution – you can use as many or as few as you need on site – allows users to generate income years before a large processing plant would be viable. The BioCube™ runs on it’s own biodiesel. It is highly efficient, producing biodiesel at volumes equivalent to much larger processing plants. All of this significantly reduces the carbon footprint of the BioCube™ biodiesel production process compared to conventional methods.
We believe there is a great deal of misperception about the food vs fuel debate; the issue lies in inequitable creation and distribution of global food supplies rather than land appropriation (less than 5% of the worlds available arable land is given up to energy crops).
Authorities in the field estimate that a minimum of 40% of the cost of food crops is directly attributable to the consumption of fossil fuels in harvesting and transporting the goods to market; they recommend planting more energy crops, closer to the point of consumption. We can all relate to the concept of buying locally grown tomatoes rather than importing them from abroad – and this applies in the same way to liquid fuels.
The BioCube™ is a powerful solution to the need for sustainable energy independence and wealth creation in developing communities. It generates a continuous source of affordable energy that can bring prosperity, enhance the community and benefit the planet – without competing with food stocks.