Fired up with clean energy
Tan Hui Leng Today Online 6 Apr 09;
WHEN business partners Allan Lim and Tan Hai Woon named their company Alpha Biofuels in 2004, it was so that they would appear at the top of search engine-generated pages. But while they were hoping for cyberspace to bring them customers, they didn’t quite expect to hear from someone like the Angkor Hospital for Children early last year.
“They found us through the Internet,” said Mr Lim, the company’s chief executive. The Cambodian hospital had already set up their own biofuel company, but what they needed help with was the process of making biodiesel. They thought Alpha Biofuels could provide the expertise.
The Singaporean start-up, upon learning of the hospital’s good cause, said “yes”, marking an unexpected foray into social enterprise.
Funded by non-governmental organisation Friends Without A Border, the hospital is staffed by an international team including doctors from Medecins Sans Frontieres. It is one of only two paediatric hospitals in the Siem Reap region and treats 300,000 children yearly. Common conditions include dengue fever, cholera and typhoid.
As the hospital is planning to boost its capacity to 1.5 million children a year and expand its services to include a surgery, it needs more energy to power everything from lights to machines. It is currently using a fossil diesel generator, not an uncommon sight in Cambodia, where many parts are not connected to the national power grid. Alpha Biofuel’s machine would convert used cooking oil to biodiesel, an environmentally-friendly method.
But building the machine was more difficult than Mr Lim and Mr Tan expected. Spare parts, for example, could not be bought easily or cheaply in Cambodia. Thus, Alpha Biofuels assembled the entire machine in Singapore and provided hospital staff with training on how to run it.
And when it was finally shipped over, it took a year to clear Cambodian customs. All this while, Alpha Biofuels was footing the bill for everything — from training and servicing to their own travelling costs to Cambodia — except the machine, which cost Angkor Hospital US$60,000 ($90,000).
“Not giving the machine at zero cost would promote a sense of ownership and a goal for them to work so as to pay back the loan,” said Mr Lim. The machine, which begins operating in June, will supply 50 to 80 per cent of the hospital’s power and will create some 20 jobs in the community.
So inspired are Mr Lim andMr Tan by the project, they are looking to take the project to Phnom Penh, and possibly other countries.
