Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Sifelani Tsiko
26 November 2007
opinion
Harare — The commissioning of Zimbabwe's first biodiesel plant is a major milestone in the country's efforts to harness available energy resources and promoting the use of renewable energy as a long-term strategy to mitigate the effects of climate change.
The new US$80 million biodiesel fuel plant, located about 15 kilometres north-west of Harare, is a joint venture between the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and a South Korean energy technology firm.
President Mugabe commissioned the plant, which has the capacity to produce 100 million litres of biodiesel annually at its peak from cotton seed, soya beans, jatropha and sunflower seed. Of course, the new plant is not going to end the fuel challenges but will serve as an important starting point for harnessing renewable energy resources and for promoting increased market penetration into the global biodiesel market and offering scope for scientific and technological research into future energy options.
Energy experts say it is important to support efforts aimed at harnessing renewable energy resources as part of addressing energy challenges in Zimbabwe and on the entire African continent.
"The energy challenge for Africa requires a diversified approach and the need to recognise the potential contribution of various energy resources," an energy expert at the African Development Bank said.
"Renewable energy technologies provide practical and feasible options for providing sustainable energy to the majority of the people." Wind energy, solar energy, biomass energy, geothermal and hydro energy remain largely untapped in Africa and energy experts say only 4 percent of Africa's huge hydropower potential has been tapped.
Government critics will say a lot of negative things about the biodiesel plant, but it is important to note that Zimbabwe is not the only country embarking on such projects.
Zimbabwe is just joining the growing list of countries which are harnessing renewable energy resources primarily to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Global trends indicate that emerging projects and markets for jatropha, palm, and soya-based biodiesel ventures in Asia, Africa, and Latin America are on the rise.
"The global market for biodiesel is poised for explosive growth in the next 10 years. Although Europe currently represents 90 percent of global biodiesel consumption and production, the US is now ramping up production at a faster rate than Europe, and Brazil is expected to surpass US and European biodiesel production by the year 2015," says William Thurmond, author of Biodiesel 2020, which gives a detailed account of global biodiesel production trends.
"It is possible that biodiesel could represent as much as 20 percent of all on-road diesel used in Brazil, Europe, China and India by the year 2020. If governments continue to aggressively pursue targets, enact investor-friendly tax incentives for production and blending, and help promote research and development in new biodiesel feedstocks such as jatropha and algae biodiesel, the prospects for biodiesel may be realised faster than anticipated. Biodiesel 2020 finds that each of these variables will be essential to the eventual success of these targets," Thurmond noted.
In Europe, biodiesel represents 2 percent of total on-road transportation fuel consumption and is expected to reach 6 percent by 2010. The total biodiesel being sold in the US amounted to less than 1 percent of all on-road diesel consumption in 2006. All this shows the promising growth indicators for the future of biodiesel markets which Zimbabwe has to tap into.
"Europeans are not turning to biodiesel to save foreign currency or to extend limited supplies of imported petroleum diesel," an analyst wrote in The Herald recently, "they are doing so to save the environment and the planet. So instead of oil companies and oilmen growing rich on Zimbabwe's scarce foreign currency, we can have our own farmers growing rich (money realised from selling jatropha).
"In all of this we must remember that we are not going it alone. We are following in the footsteps of rapidly industrialising countries such as Brazil and India that have already worked this out." Big oil multinationals are ramping up their biodiesel blending capabilities at their fuel terminals and are planning to expand biodiesel production overseas. Brazil is fast becoming a top international biodiesel supplier and energy experts say the Latin American nation is expected to be one of the world's biggest biodiesel suppliers by 2020. Brazil, today, has significantly reduced its oil import bill owing largely to its nationwide biofuels programmes to replace imported fuel with ethanol from sugarcane. Ethanol provides 40 percent of Brazil's fuel for cars and light trucks.
Trends also show that China and India will become large-scale producers and users of biodiesel over the next decade, possibly even overtaking Europe. The US government is scaling up ethanol subsidies and has proposed more than US$200 million for research with a goal to replace 15 percent of the projected fuel consumption with ethanol and other biofuels by 2017, according to the October 2007 National Geographic.
Nathanael Greene, a senior researcher with the Natural Resource Defence Council, says there is need to explore ways of making fuel from plant materials other than food - maize stalks, prairie grasses, fast growing trees or even algae. That approach, combined with more efficient vehicles and communities, Greene told the National Geographic, could eliminate demand for gasoline (fossil energy fuel) by 2050. While Europe is currently a leading biodiesel producer, it will be difficult to expand production due to agriculture capacity limitations. Economic and environmental security concerns, energy experts, say are giving birth to new government targets and incentives in China, India, Brazil and Europe, aimed at reducing petroleum imports and increasing the consumption and production of alternative and renewable fuels.
The Government of Zimbabwe has been supportive of energy efficiency and conservation efforts. In 2004, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe commissioned a biodiesel project at the Harare Polytechnic. The central bank secured a test vehicle, bio-reactor chemicals and provided logistical support for the college's biodiesel project. "There is a strong international lobby against biofuels and biodiesel. This is based on the fears that more land for food crops might be diverted to grow crops for biofuels," said Dr Olivia Muchena, the Minister of Science and Technology Development.
"They see this as a threat to food security. We in Zimbabwe are saying the route we are going is jatropha. Jatropha is a non-edible plant. It is a multi-purpose plant, it can be used to produce stockfeed and, more importantly, it grows on marginal areas in Zimbabwe helping to conserve the soil. People living in marginal areas of Zimbabwe up to now did not have a cash crop. Growing the jatropha plant will actually improve their livelihood. In Zimbabwe we are going to concentrate on jatropha, as it has the highest oil concentration content, 45 percent," she said.
Dr Muchena said Zimbabwe had vast unutilised marginal lands where jatropha can be grown to support the biofuels programme while at the same time helping initiatives to rehabilitate and reclaim environmental damaged land. While Zimbabwe and other African countries cannot miss the opportunity that comes with biodiesel projects, energy experts warn that there is need to strike the right balance between broadening energy access through use of feedstock, jatropha and other plant crops and food requirements.
UN food and agriculture experts say although the potential benefits are huge, the biofuels boom could reduce food security and drive up food prices in a world where 25 000 people die of hunger every day, mostly children under five. "The only way to reap the benefits of biofuels without squeezing the food supply is to take food out of the picture," wrote Joel Bourne of the National Geographic. He advocates increasing use of stalks, leaves, saw dust and other plant residues to produce biofuels.
"While each acre of corn (maize) produces around 300 gallons of ethanol a year and an acre of soybeans around 60 gallons of biodiesel, each acre of algae theoretically can churn out more than 5 000 gallons of biofuel each year," he said. Developed countries are increasingly using maize, soya, sugarcane and other plant crops to produce biodiesel and critics charge that this might threaten food aid provisions for emergency situations in the South.
Multinationals are coming and Zimbabweans must stand ready to defend their staple food crop, maize, in the wake of growing demand to produce biofuels from plant crops such as maize, soya beans, sugarcane and other food crops.
There are pros and cons to the biofuels debate and Zimbabwe's approach to alternative energy options must be guided by the fact that in this country: "Maize is life and life is maize." Apart from this, the biodiesel project is a welcome development and helps Zimbabwe play its modest part in mitigating climate change risks. A biofuels expert at Finealt, a parastatal charged with the production of biofuels in Zimbabwe, said engine and vehicle manufacturers were generally comfortable with blends of between 5 to 20 percent biodiesel and that this is changing.
"While manufacturers don't warrant the fuel, many, however, have position statements and recommendations on biodiesel use," Finealt said. The organisation is working with the Standards Association of Zimbabwe to come up with standards specific to Zimbabwe in terms of blending biofuels with fossil-energy fuels. Caterpillar approves up to B100 (blending ratio), Cummins up to 5 percent, Ford 5 percent, John Deere 5 percent and International up to 20 percent biodiesel. All this must meet specific ASTM 6751 and D6751 blending standard requirements.
Climate change experts say Africa will be hard-hit by climate change even though it is the least polluting continent.
Africa's emissions are estimated at 3,6 percent out of the total carbon dioxide emissions per year. The biggest culprits are the developed countries in the North, particularly the US which has refused to ratify the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) Kyoto Protocol.
Climate change experts say Africa is steadily warming, climate is changing and they predict further warming and changes in rainfall patterns. They say Africa as a whole is warmer by 0,5 degrees Celsius than it was a century ago.
Africa, they say, is particularly vulnerable to climate change because of various factors such as widespread poverty, the unsustainable use of natural resources, over-dependence on rain-fed agriculture and weak structures.
The impact is increasingly becoming evident with the frequency of natural disasters, droughts, floods and other weather extremes that lead to loss of life, economic disruption, social unrest and forced migrations and other major environmental problems.
Climate change is also threatening forestry, water resources, biodiversity and other natural resources across the continent.
"The best way to address current and future climate change and variability impacts on the poor is by integrating adaptation and climate risk management measures into sustainable development and poverty reduction strategies and programmes," the African Development Bank suggested in a report.
"In this way, developing countries will 'climate-proof' their development efforts."
African governments, the energy experts said, need to respond decisively to the impacts of climate change by diversifying energy supply, building low-carbon energy mix and opening up the market to private sector innovation and investment.
By commissioning the new biodiesel plant, Zimbabwe, at least, is playing its part in fulfilling its mandate to mitigate the effects of the biggest threat facing mankind - climate change.
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The debate is over; it’s political propaganda NOT science. UK court says Gore is a fraud. August 2007 Update: Man-made Catastrophic Global Warming Not True. Unfortunately, Hansen is a political hack of George Soros. Further, flawed NASA Global Warming data paid for by George Soros. In order to be an intelligent reader you must have a basic knowledge. Please do your own homework; a starting point http://www.InteliOrg.com/ Remember CONSENSUS is NEVER science it’s always a POLITICAL STATEMENT (Party Line).