RSB Certification of Jatropha Oil from Manabi/Ecuador as Sustainable Fuel for Combustion Engines on Galapagos Islands

(Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials) In the small country of Ecuador, all environmental risks of the production and consumption of fossil fuels can be observed by damages through oil exploration in the amazon rainforest and tank ship accidents close by Galapagos Islands causing death of 10,000 marine iguanas and other species.

To conserve this World Heritage site, the “Zero Fossil Fuel Initiative for Galapagos Islands” was started by the Ecuadorian Government. The objective is by 2020 to replace all environmentally dangerous diesel generators from all four inhabited Galapagos Islands with a hybrid system using 100% renewable energy for electricity production. Since 2010, a hybrid system of two Jatropha oil generators with an electrical power of 69 kW (kWel) and a photovoltaic plant with an electrical peak power of 21 kW (kWpeak) is successfully providing electricity from renewable energy for inhabitants and tourists of Galapagos Island Floreana.

For the energy supply concept of a World Heritage Site it is important not only to plan for a 100 % renewable energy hybrid system but also to decide for a sustainable fuel production with the best environmental, social and economical balance. For fuel supply, the so-called “Living Fence” concept collecting Jatropha seeds by farmers and families from more than 6,000 km hedges already existing on Ecuadorian mainland was chosen to comply with highest biofuel sustainability requirements. The Jatropha oil is produced in a decentralized CompacTropha oil mill following the ambitious German fuel quality standard DIN51605. Since 2010, the Floreana pilot project successfully demonstrates that it is possible to replace diesel powered gen sets by generators fuelled with pure Jatropha oil from decentralized sustainable production.

As part of the GIZ project “Climate Protection by Renewable Energies in Galapagos with Special Emphasis on Power Generation by Jatropha Oil” (ENERGAL) (2008-2015), an entrepreneurial organization for production and processing of Jatropha nuts, the cooperative COOPIÑOM, was registered and established.

Up to 700 small scale farmer families collect and transport jatropha nuts from already existing living fences and produce sustainable jatropha fuel with a low CO2 footprint for Galapagos Islands with their own decentralized oil mill. This Manabi jatropha oil project can be a blue-print for highest international fuel sustainability standard since jatropha avoids the food versus fuel conflict with no additional agricultural land or rainforest used, without irrigation and chemicals and a full respect to gender and social and property rights.

In order to further improve the oil’s competitiveness on the market and to certify the social and ecologically sustainable production of biofuels in Manabi region, the cooperative needs training in preparing for and realizing a biofuel certification of its Jatropha oil according to the widely recognized RSB standard. The certification will make COOPINOM the preferred bio fuel supplier for Galapagos and will serve as justification to demand a higher price for the certified Jatropha oil than is charged for local unsustainable palm oil as engine fuel.

Furthermore, through RSB certification, smallholders of the Manabi region can achieve higher prices for sustainable Jatropha oil than are usually paid for Jatropha oil from large-scale Jatropha or palm oil plantations. Thus, for the poorest small scale farmers of the fourth poorest country in South America – Ecuador – an increasing additional income is created by cultivation and management of their existing hedges. The organizational and management capacity of the small farmers cooperative will be strengthened and thus an improved living and income situation of its members will be guaranteed in a long term.

In order to increase the amount of Jatropha oil produced by the cooperative the project will also include marketing measures and activities to achieve a tax reduction for COOPINOM members which shall attract more families to collect Jatropha and become a member of the cooperative. Dissemination activities shall ensure that the results of this project will be recognized by the public and among scientific experts in order to promote the decentralized production of Jatropha oil in the future.

It is also necessary to improve both the jatropha fuel quality to the latest DIN 51623 standard and the quality of all agricultural sub-areas along the value chain such as nut preparation, planting, hedge trimming and maintenance, harvest, storage and transport and to create the conditions for a sustainable production.

RSB certification of the Manabi jatropha oil project will also serve as an international model. Because of the simple production process used in Manabi, RSB certified plant oil can be produced elsewhere in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe next to plant oil resources of different regional oil plants. This gives agriculture and remote areas or islands worldwide first-hand access to a sustainable, regionally produced high quality fuel at fair prices. READ MORE