Vegetable Oil Uplift

The Afghan Vegetable Oil Uplift Project - http://www.mrfrp.org

The Multi Functional Rural Fuel Platform (MFRFP) is based around the idea of turning vegetable oil into diesel fuel. This is not Biodiesel but diesel fuel that meets the US specification D975 for petroleum derived diesel fuel. The refining technology requires no methanol or other external inputs and the reactor is self powered from the by products of the refining process making it an ideal technology for deployment in remote, rural environments.

We envision setting up a network of Multi Functional Rural Fuel Platform based operations all over rural Afghanistan to implement and roll out the vegetable oil uplift system throughout the region.

Click this link to view our Afghan Power Point Presentation from - http://www.mfrfp.org

The Vegetable Oil Uplift System

The Vegetable Oil Uplift System enables community organizations or individual entrepreneurs to begin processing oil seeds. These locally cultivated soy beans or other suitable oil seed crops are then converted into vegetable oil and meal cake. The vegetable oil is further processed into rural fuel and the meal cake is used as food. The rural fuel is sold to generate cash for the community and the food used to enhance the community's diet.

Vegetable Oil Production Energizes Rural Communities

Rural Development Aid can supply electrification and clean water, but rurally produced diesel fuel is the missing piece in the aid puzzle that can energize rural communities.

The vegetable oil uplift system provides long term income generation opportunities for every one trapped in the poverty cycle that typifies much of rural Afghanistan and at the same time helps Afghan women break free from the slavery of daily fire wood and water collection...

How does the Vegetable Oil Uplift System work?

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Afghan Vegetable Oil Uplift Project

By kicking off the following two initiatives, we envision making a big impact on the daily lives of poor, rural Afghans:

1. The first initiative is to encourage the widespread cultivation of oil seed crops like Soybeans throughout rural Afghanistan.

2. Once these oil crops are under cultivation, we envision rolling out the Multi Functional Rural Fuel Platform to as many rural farming communities that are growing soy beans as possible.

By successfully implementing these two initiatives we hope to give rural Afghan communities the capabilities to add value to their farm outputs and use this new economic wherewithal to start pulling themselves out of poverty.

The following narrative describes these two initiatives in more detail:  

Oil seed cultivation project.

A project in Afghanistan to help improve the nutrition of poor, rural farmers who are currently struggling to survive has been initiated by Nutrition & Education International (NEI), spearheaded by NEI's founder Dr. Steven Kwon.

The project has started an initiative that encourages farmers in Afghanistan to grow soybeans so that Afghan's can supplement their diets with, protein rich soy based products like soymilk drunk in tea and soy flower added to Naan bread. 

NEI have conducted tests to include just over 10% soy flour mixed in with the wheat flour used to make Naan bread. Consumers either do not notice or prefer the change in taste that this high protein addition makes to their traditional Naan bread.

NEI is producing pasteurized soymilk using soybeans harvested by Afghan farmers.

Through NEI's effort, soybeans have now successfully been grown in all the different provinces in Afghanistan. In order to help the malnourished Afghan women and children receive needed nutrition going forwards, NEI will work with over 10,000 farmers in 2007 to meet the goal of producing 10,000 tons of soybeans. Many farmers are poor and have little financial means, therefore, NEI will repeat what they did in 2006 by donating to these farmers, high quality imported seed, fertilizers, and technical training for soybean cultivation. One ton of soybean seeds will produce about 40 tons of soybeans, which will directly help to provide winter survival nutrition to 1,000 six-member families.

More information on the NEI project is at this URL: http://www.nei-intl.org

Humanitarian Oilseed Development Alliance

An alliance has come together with the first meeting held in Ames, Iowa on March 30th 2007. The alliance is made up of a wide variety of individuals and organizations who have come together to initiate the use of oil seeds in the effort to reduce rural poverty.

The Oilseed Alliance has initially focused on Afghanistan and we anticipate rolling out our Multi Functional Rural Fuel Platforms to farming communities where the Oilseed Alliance has successfully encouraged the cultivation of soybeans. At the moment, these communities currently have no means of processing soybeans into higher value products and we hope that the MFRFP will fill that need.

Center of Excellence 

In conjunction with the Oilseed Alliance, we wish to see a Center of Excellence established in Afghanistan that can act as the center for all the activities needed to promote the adoption of the Multi Functional Raul Fuel Platform throughout the region. This Center would employ agricultural specialists to help farmers with their cultivation, technicians to train operators and field technicians how to maintain the Multi Functional Rural Fuel Platforms and Micro Finance specialists to ensure that the farmers are getting financed.

Multi Functional Rural Fuel Platform pilot install

We would like to send a Multi Functional Rural Fuel Platform to Afghanistan as soon as possible so that we can test our prototype and make sure all the concepts pan out as we anticipate. If the prototype works successfully, then we would like to start installing MFRFPs all over Afghanistan.

Project Milestones

1. We have built an initial prototype Platform and completed the refining technology development. Click this link to follow the Platform's progress.
2.  We are looking for a location and an organization willing to pilot this in Afghanistan. 
3. If this pilot works successfully, we would like to start distributing the MFRFP’s throughout Afghanistan. 

Afghan Land Available for Agriculture

Afghanistan is 5 times bigger than Iowa and a little smaller than Texas, with a land mass of 250,000 square miles or 650,000 square kilometers and a population of approximately 30 million people.

There are approximately 22 million acres of land currently under agricultural cultivation in Afghanistan. 5% of that land or 1 million acres is estimated at being currently available for soybean cultivation.

At yields of 40 bushels per acre which matches the soy yields seen in Minnesota and half the soybean yields achieved in Iowa, cultivating 1 million acres in Afghanistan with soybeans will produce approximately 40 million bushels of soy or 2 billion pounds (ibs) of soy meal cake.

Potential National Protein Implications

A person needs 65 grams of total protein per day and approximately ½ of that protein requirement for a healthy diet can be met using soy based protein.

Soy protein can be used to make soy milk and soy flour, which when used in a 10% rate is a great protein fortification for Naan bread, an Afghan staple food.

3 pounds (ibs) of soy meal cake produces 1 gram of protein. At this rate, 1 person’s annual protein needs can be met with 100 pounds of soy meal cake.

Cultivating 1 million acres with soybeans will produce 40 million bushels of soy or 2 billion pounds (ibs) of soy meal cake per year. 1 million acres of soybeans will produce sufficient protein for 20 million people.

This is sufficient protein to eliminate the entire Afghan protein deficiency that plays a large part in Afghanistan having the highest mortality rate f

or children under 5 years old, currently running at a stunning rate of 1 in 4.

Potential National Economic Implications

The envisioned Afghan soybean industry and using soybean derived vegetable oil used as a diesel fuel production feedstock

replacement has the potential to transform the prospects for many poor, rural Afghans…  

500 Multi Functional Rural Fuel Platforms installed throughout rural Afghanistan could produce approximately 25 million gallons of diesel fuel. This volume of diesel production would represent approximately $70 million dollars in sales revenue and replace most of Afghanistan’s diesel imports at 2004 levels.

$70 million dollars of economic income usually results in a 7 to 1 multiplication in economic activity. At this rate, 500 MFRFP’s installed throughout rural Afghanistan could potentially result in $500 million dollars of economic activity. Adding this much economic activity into the rural communities would result in the tripling of the average rural Afghan’s per capita income, from the current level of:

$1 per day or $365 per year
to
$3 per day or $1,095 per year. 

Click this link to view our Afghan Power Point Presentation for more details - http://www.mfrfp.org