[sustran] Africa starts to gear up for biofuels

[Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory]

  *Africa starts to gear up for biofuels

*<http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MjU2MTc>

(Make sure you read the BUT section -- the last four paragraphs)

AFP, 29 July 2007 - Faced with mounting energy crises, many African 
nations in recent years have zealously launched projects to produce 
cheaper biofuels, but few have gained steam.

One fervent advocate of biofuels, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, 
said during a trip to Brazil, a leading ethanol supplier, that biofuels 
would set in motion "a new revolution in Africa."

Wade boasted that the African continent was set "to be a giant producer 
of biofuels."

Struggling under the ever-rising cost of fossil fuels while also 
fighting crippling levels of poverty and disease, Africa hopes biofuels 
will boost its economic fortunes -- as well as help cut greenhouse gas 
emissions, which scientists say contribute to global warming.

Biofuel production experiments are taking place in many African 
countries, with a few already investing in facilities.

President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, the continent's most developed 
nation, has called for the fast-tracking of biofuel research and production.

South Africa began last July to construct Africa's first production 
plant for ethanol, which is made from the sugars found in grains.

The first barrels of the biofuel should start flowing by the end of this 
year, and seven similar factories are expected to be up and running by 2010.

Nigeria, Africa's oil producing giant, cannot afford to be left behind. 
It hopes to rake in 150 million dollars annually from biofuels once it 
reaches full production.

Nigeria plans to build 15 ethanol plants with technical assistance from 
Brazil. It envisions ethanol powered cars in Africa's most populous 
country by 2010.

Senegal has launched an experiment on colza plantations to produce 
bio-diesel, and distillation is under way by a Senegalese sugar firm to 
produce bio-ethanol.

To show how serious Senegal is, Wade has created a new ministry entirely 
devoted to biofuels and renewable energies. The west African country 
also wants biofuels to take off because it does not produce crude oil 
and relies heavily on diesel for generating electricity.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has set up a special commission 
to study the possibility of producing biofuels in the vast central 
African nation which cultivates less than five percent of its arable land.

"It is a project which will re-kindle and revolutionise agriculture," 
said Jean Muding, adviser to the DRC agriculture ministry.

Several other southern African countries, including Swaziland, Zambia 
and Zimbabwe, are conducting trials for bio-diesel by pressing oil from 
non-edible jatropha nuts, which grow on a shrub that survives even in 
arid conditions.

In the face of such interest, the eight-nation West African Economic and 
Monetary Union (UEMOA) warned in a recent report that biofuel production 
was "not a solution" to Africa's energy problems.

It said biofuels would remain marginal and could not replace traditional 
crude oil, but simply complement petroleum.

"It could not reach the output levels needed for mass production of 
biofuels," said UEMOA.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has also warned that 
widespread production of biofuel plants could threaten food production 
on a continent already facing food shortages.

/This article is reproduced with kind permission of Agence France-Presse 
<http://www.afp.com/> (AFP) For more news and articles visit the AFP 
website <http://www.afp.com/>. /

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Todd Edelman
Director
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