Reducing Palm Oil Greenhouse Gas Emissions

NEW YORK - Oct 31/07 - SNS -- Cargill plans to install an anaerobic digester at its CTP Harapan Sawit Lestari Palm Oil Mill and Plantation in Manis Mata, West Kalimantan, Indonesia in an effort to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by an average 54,000 metric tons (MT).

The custom-designed Managed Engineered POME Digester (MEP) will capture and convert gasses generated by the decomposition of organic matter in the palm oil mill effluent (POME) into more than 2,600 MT of methane gas per year. In the future, the gas will be used to generate onsite energy. Co-products from the process will be used as organic fertilizer to enrich the palm oil plantation and to reduce the use of other fertilizers.

The project is being managed and funded by Cargill's Environmental Finance group. Site suitability studies, design and construction management services are being provided by Golder Associates of Canada, Australia and Indonesia in cooperation with Ecofys of the Netherlands. Cargill has applied to register this project as a Clean Development Mechanism under the United Nations program for creating carbon credits that can be traded on global climate exchanges.

"We are excited to develop this innovative way of POME management," said Pierre Lepee, Operations Manager for Cargill in Asia Pacific. "The digester will substantially reduce organic load in our water effluent and methane emissions to the atmosphere while creating a renewable energy source which, over time, will help us in reducing our overall operating costs. This digester is currently under construction and is scheduled to be fully operational by February 2008."