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Team:Manchester/businessplan6
From 2013.igem.org
Once the methods described during this project have been fully optimised, we believe that the ideas presented here have the potential to become a real player in the palm oil market. Producing the main palm oil components the E. c(oil)i way would drive down costs and, more importantly, safeguard the remaining rainforests. The following pages are a summary of our business plan, and the full document can be found by clicking on the button to the right.
The Bigger Picture
As well as providing a viable economic investment, we believe our venture genuinely provides the opportunity to save the rainforest.A 12.8 hectare plant has the capability of producing 13841500 kg of palm oil per month. Considering that producing palm oil traditionally provides yields of around 320 kg per hectare per month, we can produce the equivalent of more than 43,000 hectares worth of plantations on just 12.8 hectares.
Annual deforestation due to palm oil is ~180,000 hectares annually. By just building 5 of these plants per year, we could change 180,000 hectares of lost rainforest, to using 64 hectares of any land to provide the same amount of product.
Every person in the world is thought to consume 7 kg of palm oil annually. This suggests approximately 49 billion kgs is consumed per year. This means that it would take 295 plants of this kind to completely replace palm oil industry.
Using just 3776 hectares, we could eliminate the need for the traditionally grown palm oil industry, and the mass deforestation it causes.
Photo © Ali Arsh
