Monday, September 21, 2009
china confidential
US Firm to Use New Zealand Wood to Make Bio-Coal
A New Zealand forestry company, Des Wilson Forestry, has signed a 15-year $US757 million ($NZ1.07 billion) contract to supply wood fibre to a U.S. company commercialising its renewable bio-energy business.
In a coals-to-Newcastle deal, the NZ company will supply Sea 2 Sky Corporation with 250,000 tonnes of wood fibre over the first two years, increasing to 500,000 tonnes a year for the remainder of the contract. Sea 2 Sky is based at Ferndale, in Washington State, near the heartland of America's forestry industry.
Sea 2 Sky said the NZ wood fibre will allow it to provide wood pellets, "with Europe and Asia having substantial multi-billion dollar product requirements," the Seattle Post Intelligencer website reported.
The $US757 million figure was based on a wood fibre market price of $US233 per dry tonne, it said.
Alternative to Coal
Sea 2 Sky, which started in April, uses a high-heat process to convert wood and fibre into a non-polluting, high-energy alternative to coal, essentially cooking the biomass at temperatures of 200degC to 340degC in a thermo-chemical treatment called torrefaction.
The wood fibre partly decomposes, but the pellets are claimed to have about 30 percent more energy content even though they weigh less.
The company will turn the NZ wood fibre into green coal, or bio-coal, with about 70 percent of its initial weight and 90 percent of the original energy content, but without the fossil-fuel carbon emissions of coal.
Sea 2 Sky has estimated potential market demand of more than $US500m a year.
China Confidential energy analysts call torrefaction the Next Big Thing in green energy. The roasting-like process promises a viable solution for co-firing biomass in coal-fired power plants. Other markets for bio-coal include steel mills and biomass co-generation (Combined Heat and Power, or CHP) plants.France Condemns Ayatollah's Anti-Israel Speech
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments that a “cancer of Zionism” is eating away at the Muslim world are “profoundly shocking,” the French Foreign Ministry said.
Khamenei’s comments about the “deadly cancer spreading through the invading hands of the occupiers and arrogant powers” was made during an Eid sermon yesterday in Tehran, Agence France-Presse reported. Khamenei also described Israel as a “counterfeit government.” The comments followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week reiterating his view that the Nazi Holocaust is “a myth.”
“These statements are profoundly shocking and we condemn them with the greatest firmness,” French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Christine Fages said in an e-mailed response to questions. “They add sadly to the long list of hateful comments by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. These declarations reflect the intolerance of the current leaders of Iran. It’s a sad day for the people of Iran, whom we know don’t share this attitude.”Israel Keeping All Options Open
AFP reports:Israel is keeping its options open to deal with the Iranian nuclear programme, a senior official said on Monday, after the Russian president said he had been assured it would not take military action.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made the comments in an interview with US television, excerpts of which were released by the Kremlin on Sunday.
"When Israeli President (Shimon) Peres was visiting me in Sochi recently, he said something very important for all of us: 'Israel does not plan any strikes on Iran, we are a peaceful country and we will not do this'," Medvedev said.
Peres's office declined to comment on the remarks on Monday.
But Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon reiterated what Israeli leaders have said repeatedly -- that the Jewish state is keeping all options open when it comes to its arch-foe.
"All options remain on the table," Ayalon was quoted as saying by his spokesman. "It is certainly not a guarantee."
Ayalon later told Israel's army radio that Medvedev could have misunderstood what Peres said, or that his words may have been wrongly interpreted.
Continue here.
China Confidential analysts believe Israel is considering adopting a new nuclear deterrent doctrine--that the detonation of any kind of nuclear device in (or over) Israel by any foreign power or organization will trigger the immediate obliteration of Iran. Israel is assumed to have dozens of Jericho missiles designed to carry conventional or nuclear warheads to the Gulf.
Israel also has three German-made Dolphin submarines believed to be capable of firing both nuclear and conventional cruise missiles.
Monday, 21 September 2009
The French government is speaking out more forcefully for Israel than the Obama administration. Bloomberg reports:
Posts
