Liquid biofuels
Practical Action
villages. Where they have been installed, they have been found to be socially beneficial –
particularly where the communities are very isolated. Such projects are potential candidates
for carbon finance as they replace diesel, which can lead to lower costs for both installation
and fuel.
In Mali, according to the news agency Reuters, some 700 communities have installed
biodiesel generators powered by oil from the Jatropha curcas plant. The Malian government is
promoting cultivation of the inedible oilseed bush to provide electricity for lighting homes,
running water pumps and grain mills, and other critical uses. Mali hopes to eventually power
all of the country’s 12,000 villages with affordable, renewable energy sources. Jatropha has
the additional benefit that it stabilizes soil in areas prone to erosion, and is used as a
medicinal plant.
Mali is seeking to boost the standard of living of its 80-percent-rural population and to reduce
migration from impoverished rural areas through electricity for light, air conditioning, vaccine
storage and media. (Herro)
In rural Cambodia a scheme was piloted whereby jatropha nuts, which grow wild along the
roadside, are collected by local villagers and traded by the local shopkeeper in exchange for
goods to the value of the nuts. The nuts are bought by the oil-producer for this traded price
and small oil-expellers located in some of the villages will be used to make jatropha oil. The oil
was supplied to those businesses charging batteries and running standard diesel generators.
The ‘cake’ from the crushed seeds is used for cattle feed (DATe).
Biofuels for transport
Ethanol is a high octane fuel and has replaced lead as an octane enhancer in petrol. By
blending ethanol with petrol, oxygen is added to the fuel mixture so it burns more completely
and reduces polluting emissions. Ethanol fuel blends are widely sold in the United States. The
most common blend is 10% ethanol and 90% petrol (E10). Vehicle engines require no
modifications to run on E10. Only flexible fuel vehicles can run on up to 85% ethanol and
15% petrol blends (E85).
Brazil is the leader in biofuel production, with a government decision more than twenty years
ago to make the country self-sufficient in energy. By 2005, the number of cars sold that could
run on both ethanol and petrol exceeded those sold that could use petrol alone.
By 2020, it is projected that biodiesel could represent as much as 20% of all on-road diesel
used in Brazil, Europe, China and India. Biodiesel consumption in the U.S. grew from 25
million gallons per year in 2004 to over 250 million gallons in 2006. In the U.S. over fifty
new, larger-scale plants are in construction and are expected to come online between 2007
and 2008 (Biodiesel 2020).
Biofuels and the environment
Biofuels can both benefit and destroy the environment – depending on the ways in which they
replace fossil fuels. When fossil fuels burn, they add to the levels of greenhouse gases in the
environment. Where these are replaced by renewably-grown biofuels, the carbon dioxide is re-
absorbed by the plants as they grow, and energy does not need to be expended in transporting
fossil fuels for long distances. Thus, using clean and sustainable practices, biofuels can
benefit the environment, and add economic value to local communities.
However, where large plantations have been planted in rainforest areas, this benefit is
completely overwhelmed by the damage done to the environment by burning the forest, which
is an essential global ‘sink’ for these greenhouse gases. This large-scale, non-regulated
approach can lead to land degradation as the soil is leached of its nutrients. Communities are
often faced with eviction or land on which crops no longer grw.
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