Back Cocktail Isaan Power - the Netherlands - Thai Chamber of ...

Interview
Isaan Power: Straw as Fuel of the
Future
By Margot Campman
W
hen Bram Jansen fi rst came to Thailand fi ve years ago, his innovative idea of rice farmers producing
energy in addition to growing rice, found solid ground in the fi elds of Isaan. More than 25 years of
experience in the alternative energy sector led to a signifi cant capital injection in his company
Isaan Power. Learn about Bram’s fascinating initiative that will lead to sustainable development on both
environmental as social levels.
A
After working for several industrial companies in
the Netherlands, Bram Jansen came to the conclusion
that waste disposal off ers many opportunities,
but also that many challenges still remain. A long
journey with many ups and downs fi nally led to the
establishment of Biomass Nederland, a company that
generated electricity using wood waste and paper
residue as fuel to reduce CO2 emissions.
GGreat Potential in Asia
Even while working with Biomass Nederland, Bram
Jansen continued to feel the urge for further innovation
and development of alternative energy. To realize his
idea he needed money, and quite a lot of it. It took
him all the way to Dutch Prince Friso, then Managing
Director at Wolfensohn & Company in London. The
prince advised him to go look beyond the borders
of Europe: “That’s where the opportunities are”. In
2008, Mr. Jansen fi nally arrived in Thailand where he
realized that Asia has an enormous potential in terms
of biomass industry with abundant straw available
after the rice harvest. An area with high potential is
the North East of Thailand with 17 million hectares
of farmland, 21 million people and a rice production
of 12 million tons per year. If the straw, which is
currently burned after the harvest, were used to
generate electricity, six power plants could be built
in Isaan reducing the release of 3.4 billion ton CO2 in
the process.
TThe Test Phase
Traditionally, local farmers set fi re to the fi elds after
harvesting the rice. “An absolute waste!” says Bram.
It leads to signifi cant air pollution (CO2 release and
particles) whereas the straw could be used for energy
generation if a collection process could be properly
organized. During the test phase, it soon became
clear that the entire process of plowing, fertilizing
and harvesting would need to be mechanized. From
the beginning, it was observed that production
increased rapidly leading to a signifi cant increase in
the income of the farmers involved. Bram then took
bales of straw back to the Netherlands and Germany
to experiment with (yes, it did lead to some heads
turning at Suvarnabhumi Airport). After an extensive
analysis and testing phase he concluded that, indeed,
rice straw has great energy potential. It resulted in
a new product named NewFuel, which consists of
catt le feed like pellets made from compressed straw
granulates. g
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