Cocoa Board to partner with UNRE in Biogas trial

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(l-r) Farm manager Alex Nugi, Acting Vice Chancellor
Dr James Yoko and Warangoi Cattle Station coordinator
Apelis Kapi at the installation of the system at the Farm earlier
this month.
PNG UNRE is preparing to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with PNG Cocoa Board on a Biogas trial project.
The signing will take place next Wednesday (Nov 21) between the two parties.
UNRE Farm Manager Alex Nugi said the MOU will strengthen the partnership between the University and Cocoa Board and will enable academic programs to benefit from the technology.
Mr Nugi said the Biogas Production system using livestock manure and cocoa pod waste is a technology designed by Engineers Without Borders and developed by Atec Company. 
The end product after the anaerobic digestion of biodegradable material is methane gas which can be used as clean heat for burning purposes.
Mr Nugi said Cocoa Board has adopted this technology to address the ‘smoke taint’ problem affecting cocoa quality in PNG.
In an interview with Post-Courier in May last year, Cocoa Board executive manager (field services) Dr Arnold Parapi, said PNG has high smoke, taint cocoa resulting in our cocoa being rated at 90 per cent.
Innovations such as this will improve PNG’s cocoa rating.
Partners in this project include Australian Volunteers International (AVI), Indigenous to Indigenous (I2I), University of Queensland (UQ), Australian National University (ANU) and now PNG UNRE.
Mr Nugi said the only two organisations in the country that have been chosen to trial this are Cocoa Board and PNG UNRE.

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