No matter what they say about supremacy of high technologies in the modern world, the society of consumers, and excessive comfort, you’ll see an absolutely opposite picture if visit whatever village in Odessa region. The habitants there could hardly be called feather-bedded, at least because like their grandmothers and grandfathers they have to lay in firewood and coal for every winter and then, when it gets cold, to heat their stoves daily. The situation with gas service installation in dwelling houses, schools, hospitals, kindergartens and other social facilities in provincial locations is one of the key problems for Odessa region. And despite the numerous clerks’ and deputies’ promises, it’s being solved very slowly. The reason is not unusual – there is the lack of funds in local budgets for supplying the rural areas with gas. Moreover, as the chairman of Odessa regional administration Alexander Malin informed, there doesn’t exist such a budget which will be enough for full installation of gas service in Odessa region. Therefore, the conversion to alternative energy sources is not just a following novelty, but possibly the only way out from the current situation, which may finally give a proper living standard and a necessary level of comfort to hundred thousands habitants of Odessa region.
During the last heating season the government of Odessa region started introducing biofuel at some social facilities. The boiler stations working on alternative power sources were launched for heating schools, hospitals, kindergartens and other state-funded organizations. Moreover, one of the biggest boiler stations in Europe started functioning in town Artsyz. Wood and straw pellets were mostly utilized as a fuel material. The experiment of authorities may be definitely called successful as it became really warm in rural hospitals, kindergartens and schools, at the same time the load on local budgets decreased.
In the opinion of the chairman of Odessa region Nikolay Serdyuk, the national power specialists use only a miserable part of alternative energy sources like straw. As the chairman says, every year after a harvesting time Ukrainian agrarians get 50 million tones of straw, which is mainly left on fields. Ukraine possesses the biggest volume of this energy source among all European countries, thus it’s absolutely unwise from our side not to use it for biofuel production. The experts calculated that if to heat for instance a school with straw pellets, then 2-3 tones will be sufficient for the whole heating season.
It should be noted that the heating value features of straw pellets are not worse than the ones of wood pellets. In addition, straw is much cheaper and more available than wood, consequently straw pellets are also less expensive. If to compare straw pellets with liquid gas, then such benefits of pellets as a high packed density and a high energy capacity when the occupied space is not big could be mentioned. Thanks for these technical features such fuel is rather convenient and relatively cheap to store, load and deliver for long distances. Moreover there is no risk of leakage or explosion which may happen during natural gas transporting. And certainly the sustainability of straw pellets should be mentioned. When they are used the emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere are minimal, what can’t be said about the process of burning traditional fuel materials.
The analysis of the modern power market showed that nowadays it’s rather profitably to produce straw pellets. The demand for them is rather high both on the national and foreign markets, and due to the regular growth of prices for gas, electricity and oil the need in such fuel will permanently increase as well. Furthermore, the level of demand for today already prevails over the level of supply, what encourages the players of the Ukrainian market to grow and develop. The infrastructure of the straw pellet constantly improves, new producers and suppliers appear, a fruitful collaboration of sellers and customers is established.
After examining the market situation the partners of Ukrainian Biofuel Portal created the business-plan of organizing the production of straw fuel pellets. The project presents a stage-by-stage description of preparation and launching the production process, moreover there is the calculation of the expected profit, the payback period is also forecasted. It’s emphasized in the present business project that for launching the plant it’s primarily necessary to have industrial premises, equipment and transport. The other possible expenses, including marketing activities and administrative costs are also listed out. The market of straw pellet selling is also analyzed, after this the approximate sale prices are formed and the annual sales volumes are forecasted.
The presented project may get a valuable guide for the entrepreneurs, intending to organize a straw pellet production business. The comprehensive data about the modern biofuel market state will help to avoid lots of possible mistakes and financial losses during preparing and launching a production process. In other words, no need to invent a bicycle, it’s simply enough to follow the precise instructions and descriptions and thus save energy and time.;
Today such projects is just what the politicians and the entrepreneurs responsible for launching biofuel boiler stations in rural locations of Odessa region need. It should also be noted that after the local authorities decided to convert Odessa region to biofuel including straw pellets the significant increase of demand for alternative energy sources is expected. Unfortunately, the national infrastructure in this power sector is hardly developed, besides this there are a few specialists in Ukraine who have the experience of using or producing fuel granules. Therefore, the precise calculation, the market analysis and step-by-step description of all the stages of the production process would definitely help the business people to avoid big mistakes and material losses. Thanks for such projects they could arrange their commercial activity, to penetrate the pellet market and the most important finally give the habitants of Odessa region such a long expected available warmth.