Tapera Industries is a business in the bio-fuels sector, registered with Zambia Development Agency (ZDA)and affiliated to the Bio-fuels Association of Zambia (BAZ). The core activity of the business is the processing of bio-diesel fuel from decomposed vegetable oils, Used Cooking Oil (UCO) from restaurants, refining of the glycerol by-product into FFA's and crude glycerine. As it becomes more and more evident that the future of the fuel industry lies on an ongoing impetus to provide a cheaper and non-depleting source of renewable energy, Tapera has taken the initiative of being one of the pioneering businesses in the field of bio-fuels and organic products.
MISSION STATEMENT
To supply quality, environmentally friendly fuels and metal fabrication services with the aim to facilitate growth in industry.
BUSINESS JUSTIFICATION/OPERATIONS
Our biggest and most consistent market is Star drilling & Exploration Ltd. They use B50 bio diesel in their rigs and 4x4 vehicles. Since starting to use bio-diesel they've saved up Zmk 15,000,000 (usd 3,000) in the last 5 months of regular use of a blend.
Our fuel is cheaper due to our low production costs and usage of cheaper feedstock than standard bio energy crops. This advantage gives us a chance to undercut the regular fuel suppliers, who charge about usd 0.30 more than we do.
Our biggest advantage, apart from using a cheap feedstock, is that our Transesterification unit is locally fabricated with a processing capacity of up to 600 litres of vegetable oil per day, with a yield of 90% of bio-diesel fuel.
With research into the use of soap stock as a feedstock coming along, Tapera will soon be processing this waste product into a high value comodity.
STRATEGIC DIRECTION
Our short term outlook is to source Used cooking oil internationally, within the southern African region to sustain a 5000 litres per day production plant. It is a temporary solution to the scarcity of vegetable oil raw material. As a long term endeavour, Tapera Industries’ plans to establish bio-diesel processing plants in at least 5 other provinces in Zambia. This will allow us provide a cheaper source of fuel distribution as it will cut down on transport costs in each area.
For long term sustainability, we intend to process soap stock which is a waste product from cooking oil refining industry. Though the bio diesel fuel yields may be lower from this feedstock, it is consistent and readily available and using this product will help clean up the environment seeing as it has no immediate valuable use other than to be used in the processing of soap bars. A feedstock like soap stock can sustain a production of a minimum of 10,000 litres per week.
