|
With an aim to shift from high-cost fossil oil to
cost-effective bio-fuel, the Council of Ministers a
month ago approved the utilization of bio-fuel
development strategy in Ethiopia.
The 16-page strategic document, approved in
September, was prepared by the Ministry of Mines and
Energy (MoME) in collaboration with experts at the
Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) and the
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD).
The growing increase of the international oil price
alerted the Ethiopian government to consider
shifting to the consumption of bio-fuel. Ethiopia on
average spends 8.6 billion Br annually on importing
petroleum, which consumes about 87pc of the hard
currency the country earns from foreign trade each
year.
In the words of an expert at the Ministry of Finance
and Economic Development (MoFED), who asked not to
be named: "Due to the fact that Ethiopia's economy
has positive growth year through year, the country's
energy need grows faster to match the pace of the
economy. However, in order to contain the ever
increasing cost of the fossil oil market that would
impact on the economy, the advent of this strategy
to utilize the bio-fuel and ethanol potential in
Ethiopia is a good news."
Bio-fuel is comprised mostly of vegetable oil - from
jatropha, castor seed, and palm, for example - which
is mixed with methanol or ethanol, both highly
combustible alcohols, and a dash of potassium
hydroxide until the chemical reaction produces a
fuel that can be burned in any diesel engine with
much lower emissions. Similarly, bio-diesel can also
be made from animal fats. Ethanol can be obtained
through distillation process from sugarcane, corn or
from sweet potatoes, so all of bio-fuel's
ingredients are renewable, unlike fossil fuels.
The use of vegetable oil to power engines is not a
new idea. Quite to the contrary, Rudolph Diesel
allegedly used peanut oil to power the diesel engine
he first debuted at the 1900 World Fair in Paris and
predicted that vegetable oils would one day replace
fossil fuels as the main source of energy for
combustion engines.
Speaking to Fortune, an expert from Fincha Sugar
Factory said that blended fuel has been in use
elsewhere in the world, and that it has been proven
to be practical and effective for the purposes for
which it has been approved . Moreover, the
production of pure ethanol can as well be used as
energy source for cooking purposes and electric
power, the expert added.
Bio-diesel can also be blended with petroleum
products of fossil oil. It is also possible to make
pure bio-diesel for purposes of industrial input,
agricultural activities and electric power.
The strategic document guides the utilization of
bio-fuel by way of producing ethanol from sugar-cane
and extracting bio-diesel from such oilseed plants
like jatropha, castor seed and palm trees.
Ethiopia has 700,000hct of land suitable to develop
sugar plantation, though currently the sector
remains under the monopoly of the government, as
there is not a single private investor involved in
the sector.
The three sugar factories dominating the main supply
line in the domestic market are Fincha, Wonji-Shoa
and Metehara. The combination of their annual
production capacity reached 2.8 million quintals of
sugar. While Fincha produces eight million liters of
ethanol, Wonji-Shoa and Metehara together yield
64,000ton of molasses per year. Ethanol produced
from Fincha reaches to the international market
through Silcompa Italy. Molasses has also been
exported to overseas markets.
According information obtained from the Sugar
Development Agency, once the effort to remobilize
these potential resources for utilization of
bio-fuel begins, the agreement to export ethanol and
molasses would be terminated.
The project of the fourth state-owned sugar factory,
Tendaho whose construction is underway at a cost of
eight billion Birr that would develop over 64,000hct
of land increases the capacity with which to produce
the bio-fuel energy. The agency's information
discloses that the expansion project of the three
existing sugar factories that requires the
government to expend not less than eight billion
Birr enlarges the bio-fuel production activities in
the country.
With the completion of the four sugar factories in
2012/2013, 128.1 million litres of ethanol per year
will be produced.
If all the potential suitable land for sugar
plantation is being utilized, the country would be
able to produce one billion litres of ethanol; that
is seven times much more than the annual consumption
of the fossil oil energy consumption of Ethiopia,
sources from the Agency forecasts the potential
capacity for production of ethanol.
On the other hand, for the production of oils for
bio-fuel, Ethiopia has 23.3 million hectare of land;
17.2 million hectare in Oromia, which is the largest
of the six other regions in which the bio-diesel
potential could be tapped such as Benishangul-Gumuz,
Gambella, Somalia, Amhara, Southern Nations,
Nationalities and Regional State and Tigray.
Currently, not less than 20 companies have been
registered to produce vegetable oils for bio-fuel;
however, five of them have already gone operational.
Bio-fuel is the only alternative fuel approved by
the Environmental Protection Agency.
However, an environmentalist from the
Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) views the whole
matter of the bio-diesel development in Ethiopia
with different spectacle that the fact that to
develop such sector requires vast chunk of land, it
would pave a trend for the domination of mono crop
at the cost of the bio-diversity flora and fauna in
Ethiopia.
The government does not buy this pessimistic view
cast by the environmentalist. The strategic document
to develop the bio-fuel project took into
consideration the welfare of the pastoralists and
the farming community in the country in a way they
would not be affected by the activities, the
government sources stress.
The strategic document includes the market beyond
the domestic demand and the government feasibly sees
this would be possible to achieve.
FloraEcoPower Company operating mainly in Oromiya
region to develop bio-fuel energy strongly believes
that 'Bio-diesel extraction is an easy process,
which can be done by small-scale operation in local
villages. This company particularly extracts oil
from castor and jatropha.
Jatropha grows in dry climatic condition that should
be below 2,000mm rainfall, the yield would be
1,000kg per hectare, however, where the rainfalls
range from 900 to 1,200mm, jatropha would yield up
to 5,000kg per hectare.
Jatropha and castor seeds in Ethiopia are estimated
to cost from 0.45 to 0.75 dollars per litre.
However, in Germany, a litre costs 1.3 dollars,
information obtained from Minstry of Mines and
Energy confirms.
Disclosing to Fortune, Melis Teka, MoME's
acting head of the energy department confirms that
study is underway to be concluded as to how the
incentive package would be proposed to create
encouraging environment for those developers to
invest in the sector.
In order to broaden the use of bio-fuel in Ethiopia,
Flexfuel vehicles (FFV) would be imported by way of
encouraging importers through some forms of
incentives.
Granting land suitable for development of ethanol
and bio-fuel energy in various sections of the
country free from fees or with lowest possible cost
of leasing as well as on long term basis are some of
the incentive packages to encourage more investments
in the sector, close source disclose.
|
