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Essent Trading and Stramproy agree unique bio-coal deal
Geneva/Steenwijk, 26 August 2009 - Essent Energy Trading BV and Stramproy Green Coal B.V. have today signed a multi-year contract for Stramproy to deliver 90,000 tons of bio-coal to Essent on an annual basis. The bio-coal, which will start to be delivered in late 2009 or early 2010, is to be produced in a state-of the-art manufacturing facility in Steenwijk, The Netherlands.
The Steenwijk facility, which is currently under construction, is the first of its kind world wide to begin production of bio-coal on a commercial scale. Similarly, Essent power plants will be the first to co-fire significant volumes of bio-coal as part of its efforts to increase the already higher-than-industry-standard percentage of co-firing at its power stations.
‘This deal marks the first time that two companies have entered into such a significant and ground-breaking initiative on bio-coal,' said Remco Frenken, Senior Vice President of Global Commodities at Essent Trading. ‘It also reaffirms the importance of the Netherlands in general - and the Amer plant in particular - as being at the forefront of bio-mass development,' he added.
‘This deal is a milestone for Stramproy to develop a standard in bio-coal and lays the basis for our future growth,' said IJsbrand Galema, Member of the Board of Stramproy.
As part of the deal, both parties will commence extensive research and production tests to gain unique understanding of the optimal working conditions for production of bio-coal and its effect on the whole supply chain.
What is bio-coal?
Bio-coal is a coined term that denotes a woody biomass that has been ‘torrefied' to produce similar characteristics to fossil coal. It can therefore be processed together with regular coal at power stations. Torrefaction consists of a slow heating of biomass in an inert atmosphere to a maximum temperature of 300°C. The treatment yields a solid uniform product with higher energy content and density than conventional biomass products like wood pellets and wood chips.
Transporting and burning bio-coal has significantly less impact on the environment than fossil fuels. As the torrefaction process itself is energy neutral, the total carbon footprint of the bio-coal supply chain is better or equal to that of wood pellets. The Steenwijk bio-coal facility will be combined with a small-scale Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit, to further reduce the impact on the environment and increase energy efficiency above 60%.
About Essent Trading
Essent Trading, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, is a prestigious asset-backed merchant energy trading business with its roots in the Netherlands. Essent Trading is recognised as a market leader in energy trading in Europe and has been voted as a top-tier trading house by Energy Risk Magazine since 2004. Our parent company, Essent N.V. is the largest energy company in the Netherlands with approximately 5,000 employees, more than 6,000 MW of diverse generation portfolio and over 2.6 million customers across the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Essent is ranked among Europe's leading companies in renewable and sustainable energy generation. For more information, visit www.essenttrading.com.
About Stramproy Green
Stramproy Green, located in Steenwijk, the Netherlands, has developed its own unique ‘Torrefaction' Technology since 1997 in a bid to develop a CO2 neutral fuel. Today, it is building three installations in the Benelux to produce 135,000 tons of bio-coal annually. It plans to remain a market leader in producing bio-coal for power stations (2,000,000 tons by 2014), and plans to ‘torrefy' a larger variety of woody biomass at its source.
