Making the Best Use of Biofuels

For an average net importer of food and fuel, like Rwanda, the idea of biofuels would appear to be the savior in these dire times, especially when dependency on fossil fuels is proving to be a major headache to the growing economies, reports AllAfrica.

During the recent Rome food summit, the deliberations were marred by the clash of opinions, with the biofuel proponents putting down their foot firmly on any resolution that would hint at blaming what is supposed to be a source of renewable energy.

The energy balances of most African countries suggest that biofuels (wood fuel, crop and wood residues, and dung) constitute the largest share of total energy consumption (up to 97% in some sub-Saharan Africa countries).

The contentious biofuels however are those that are directly obtained from plants that would have otherwise been sources of food, like sugarcane, maize/corn or Soya beans.

In this case, the foods which contain starch or sugar reserves are fermented to produce ethanol and other alcohols which are then either mixed with petrol or used purely to substitute derivatives of fossil oil to produce energy.

The advantage is that unlike fossil fuels which on being burnt greenhouse gases which accumulate in the atmosphere to encourage global warming (through a different scientific process), biofuels burn more efficiently to produce less greenhouse gases.

Because the demand for biofuel has suddenly increased, farmland is being moved away from food production to the more lucrative production of raw materials for biofuels hence reducing on the available food stocks for human consumption, and causing a food shortage.

The so-called second generation biofuels have recently gained praise as the solution to Africa's problem of eliminating the competition between biofuels and food production.

Jatropha which can be cultivated in semi-arid, arid, or sub-humid soils, appears to be the viable alternative although it then raises its own conundrum. Growth of such a crop would like a large scale movement of land from food crops or reclamation of forests into growing of fuel crops.

No matter what we say, today biofuels represent a pragmatic solution in light of the energy problems in relation to soaring oil prices."

Meanwhile, some experts believe that the impact of biofuels in Africa, if well handled could have a dramatic effect on the millions of people who are adversely affected by the two major crises of our time, of oil and food scarcity.

Growing of biofuel crops like Jatropha could provide the necessary income that would enable farmers to afford the price of food.

View the AllAfrica story by clicking here.

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