TERRA ENDEAVORS 

In most regions of the developing world, the rural population's ongoing need for cooking fuel is a major contributor to deforestation, as well as greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to the environmental toll this process exerts, once villagers have spent hours gathering waste wood or paid to buy charcoal, these materials become a major cause of respiratory & other serious illness.

Our solution (one that's been successfully implemented in several developing countries) is to provide alcohol-burning stoves to households in rural communities. What hasn't been done in the past however, s that we collaborate with members of these villages to produce their own extremely clean-burning algae-derived ethanol cooking fuel.

Unlike other biofuel feedstocks, cultivating algae in a low-cost photo-bioreactor (PBR) requires minimal water resources, takes up no arable land and removes substantial amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere.

Byproducts, providing additional revenue streams, of the process include high-protein animal feed, organic fertilizer & CO2 credits.

On 2-4 hectares of non-arable land, with our assistance, a rural community of 3,000 is able to cultivate enough algae to provide for all their cooking fuel & diesel fuel needs -- to power gensets in clinics, schools, business & homes, with enough left over the sell to surrounding villages & others.

Algae-derived biodiesel burns 50-75% cleaner than conventional diesel, provides for better engine performance, is made by & for villagers directly, while reducing the country's reliance on expensive foreign-sourced petroleum.

Access to electrical service is one of the foundations to a community's standard of living, yet only about 2% of rural households in East Africa and developing regions around the world have such access.

By utilizing very low-cost & easily made biodigesters, rural villages throughout these regions can generate their own clean-burning energy, which can be distributed to homes in a mini-grid configuration. Electricity produced in excess of the village's needs is another potential income stream, when sold to surrounding villages or back to the national grid.

Rivaling the importance of access to electrical service is access to clean water. Untold hardship, misery, disease & mortality are all the result of not having access to this most precious of resources.

As the popularity of biofuel crops has increased throughout the world, their substantial "water footprint" has often gone unreported, yet is having a profound impact on rural villages all over the world.

We ensure that our cultivation of algae & algae-derived outputs will not take away from any community's access to clean water by contracting for the installation of conveniently located water wells wherever we have operations in place.

The raising livestock is nearly universally practiced among the rural communities of East Africa and in other developing regions. Unfortunately, there are very few affordable sources of animal feed. Grain feed is beyond the financial means of most smallholders and is typically grown on re-claimed land that could be supplying urgently needed food crops for human consumption.

In contrast, the algae-derived animal feed we provide will be affordable, as it will have been produced by members of the rural communities themselves, using non-arable land & minimal water resources.

The growing of crops by small farmers is also very widely practiced throughout the developing world. Over the years however, the amount of arable land available to each farmer has become quite limited, leading to over-cultivation in most areas. Unable to afford conventional (chemical) fertilizer, most rely on low-productivity animal waste in an attempt to replenish their soil.

A much better solution is found in the algae biomass & biodigester residual material produced by the community, which will serve as a high-yield organic fertilizer.

Another of the great benefits that algae provides is that it's the raw ingredient for several highly-value personal care products in the US, Europe & Australia-- these include Chlorella & Spirulina nutritional supplements, glycerin soap and the cosmetic ingredient DHA.

Thru our network of nutritional supplement distributors, and social-cause oriented retailers, these materials are a tremendously valuable source of income for the rural communities with whom we partner.

In addition to all its other benefits, the process of cultivating algae also has the benefit of absorbing large amounts of CO2 (the greenhouse gas recognized as a key contributor to global warming).

There are numerous opportunities (both domestically & internationally) for our partner villages to earn additional revenues from their removal of CO2 from the atmosphere via their cultivation of algae.