Biomass Supply Solutions

Ceres BioVentures provides biomass supply solutions to European power and heat markets. It controls the entire supply chain to deliver reliable, repeatable and certifiably sustainable volumes in woodchip and wood pellet form.

Ceres has a secure pipeline of wood-based feedstock sources capable of supplying 2 million dry ton/year (1 million toe) and has designed fully integrated supply chains that minimize supply risks through:

v Independently certified sustainably managed plantations

v Partnerships with forest owners and managers with a track record in producing consistent plantation growth and quality control

v Access to existing logistics supply services and infrastructure to ensure predictable delivery schedules and minimize stock holding

v A low carbon footprint

Service Offering

Ceres provides a comprehensive biomass procurement service for both dedicated biomass plants and co-firing applications including:

v Developing a suitable biomass procurement strategy to meet the particular needs of the project, its sponsors and financiers

v Sourcing the entire biomass requirement both from its own sources and its extensive network of third party suppliers

v Overseeing the daily management of the end to end supply chain – from forest to the customer’s plant storage yard

v Developing and implementing a risk management strategy in conjunction with the customer including management of alternate supply options

Product Offering

Woodchip

Ceres BioVentures can make available over 500,000 green metric tonnes per annum of woodchips starting from Q1 2010 for up to a 15 year term. The woodchips are sourced from our portfolio of suppliers based in the United States, Africa and Europe. All woodchips are sourced from independently certified sustainably managed plantations.

Torrefied Pellets

Ceres is also partnering with the leading torrefaction technology company to establish multiple torrefied pellet plants in order to satisfy our customers’ long term requirements. Torrefied pellets will provide our customers a number of key benefits:

v Torrefied pellets have similar properties to coal (energy content of around 22GJ/tonne and 18GJ/m3). The low moisture content and consistent specification enables a high degree of certainty in designing boilers (minimise size and capital cost for a given MWe capacity), heat exchange elements and emissions abatement equipment.

v Facilitates logistics benefits such as a lower total storage area (compared to woodchips for the same energy) and carbon footprint from source to customer. Being both hydrophobic and stable, torrefied pellets can be stored outdoors without the need for specialised holding facilities and gas controls necessary for other fuels such as white pellets.

v Maximise the volume of biomass that can be co-fired in current generation coal-fired electricity and smelting plants thereby extending current plant life through compliance with regulations associated with the EU Large Combustion Plant Directive.

Ceres has secured supplies to underpin the development of several torrefied pellet plants. Production is scheduled to commence in 2012 with a minimum of 600,000 green metric tonnes per annum available to the market for terms of up to 15 years from 2013.

Supply Terms

Ceres is able to tailor a biomass procurement solution to fit the customer’s needs comprising one or more of the following elements:

v Contract volumes jointly marketed by the forest owner and Ceres with associated guarantees of performance thus providing a high degree of certainty of supply as well as significant financial credibility

v Short term, spot supplies or long term contracts to underpin power plant investments

v Price structures with exposure to European power prices or long term fixed price arrangements

v Shaped contract quantities

v FOB or CIF