11 October 2022, by Claudia Esveldt
We recently added Project Elephant Grass to our platform. Together with a local partner, we will be planting elephant grass in Kenya. In this blog, we will use this project as a case study and give 10 reasons why elephant grass is a great circular product. Elephant grass grows very quickly, reaches a considerable height, and can be harvested several times a year. We use the harvested elephant grass to make biofuel briquettes, which we sell to local manufacturers. This provides them with a more sustainable and efficient alternative to firewood or fossil fuels. In this way, we prevent deforestation and contribute to the energy transition. We have been working on this for several months now and are very enthusiastic about elephant grass! Curious? Here they are: 10 reasons why we think elephant grass is a great circular product.
1. It is an alternative to firewood
It is possible to make sustainable briquettes from elephant grass. Due to their higher energy density, briquettes burn much more efficiently than regular briquettes made from wood. Because the grass is pressed under high pressure, the briquettes are very dense and extremely suitable for replacing wood and coal as fuel for all kinds of machines. A win-win situation!
2. Elephant grass is drought-resistant
The grass is extremely strong, resistant to prolonged drought and requires very little fertiliser. This makes it an easy plant to grow and gives it a high survival rate.
3. It stores CO2 in its roots
Did you know that one square metre of elephant grass stores an average of 1.1 kilograms of CO2 per year? Twenty per cent of this is stored in the roots. Even better, this stored CO2 is not lost when the grass is harvested. This is in contrast to wood, which can only be harvested once. This is one of the reasons why elephant grass is a sustainable alternative to wood.
4. The carbon cycle is negative
Another advantage of elephant grass is that it does not take much energy to process the grass into briquettes. This ensures that the entire carbon cycle is negative. In other words, more CO2 is saved/stored than is emitted when the briquettes are burned.
5. It has already proven itself as a biomass fuel
The processing of elephant grass into biomass briquettes is a relatively new technology, but in recent years it has been successfully introduced in China, India, the United States and Austria, among other countries.In Kenya, however, we will be the first! Not a moment too soon: there is a huge demand in the Kenyan market! With this project, we are responding to growing demand among manufacturers for efficient, affordable and sustainable biomass fuel.
6. Elephant grass grows on marginal land
Like the Pongamia tree, elephant grass grows extremely well on poor, fallow land. This gives economic value to arid and infertile land that is unsuitable for food production.
7. It is a native plant species
Miscanthus x Giganteus and Pennisetum purpureum are tropical grass species that occur naturally in the savannahs of Africa. These native species are also known as Napier Grass, Uganda Grass, or Elephant Grass. The latter name comes from the fact that elephants enjoy eating the grass.
8. Harvesting is not seasonal
Elephant grass grows all year round and can be harvested at any time. Once mature, it grows so quickly that it can be harvested every two months!
9. It improves soil fertility In
the United Kingdom, we have a nitrogen surplus in many places, but plots of infertile soil in Kenya could use some extra nitrogen. This fertiliser makes the soil more fertile. Elephant grass is ‘nitrogen fixating’, which means that it adds nitrogen to the soil and thus makes poor soils more fertile.
10. It adds economic
activity Project Elephant Grass creates employment for at least 25 people! Moreover, it is a highly scalable concept, allowing us to scale up relatively easily in the future and thus employ even more people. This makes it not only a sustainable project, but also a social one!
Conclusion: 10 reasons why elephant grass is a great circular product
The answer is clear: Yes! You probably understand now why we at Corekees are so enthusiastic about Elephant Grass. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg! Did you know that investing in Project Elephant Grass is also very profitable? With an estimated return of 9.5% per year and a term of 5 years, this amounts to an ROI of 47.5%. Want to invest in Project Elephant Grass? Unfortunately, the campaign is completely sold out!
