Others, however, insist that biofuels are a recipe for disaster – potentially resulting in deforestation, the eviction of rural smallholders and the loss of land that should be used for food production.
Bio-based materials can provide energy in multiple ways. Certain crops can be used to produce ethanol, which can then be blended with gasoline to produce fuel for vehicles. Ethanol can also be used in cooking stoves, providing a cleaner alternative to wood or charcoal. Alternatively, crops – or their waste products – can be burned to generate electricity.
Of course, Africa already relies on biomass for energy. The International Energy Agency estimates that over 80% of the continent’s population uses biomass – mainly firewood and charcoal – for cooking.
But production of biofuels on a commercial scale in Africa has been very limited – the giant commercial biofuel plantations seen in Brazil and parts of Southeast Asia remain uncommon in Africa.
In the absence of domestic oil production, the country has long been forced to import petroleum through Tanzania.
Zambia is, like many African countries, at the mercy of volatile global oil prices and exchange rate fluctuations, with the result, Bennett says, that fuel is “really ridiculously expensive”.
Sunbird Bioenergy is now using cassava as a feedstock for a biorefinery in Luapula province that is designed to produce 120m litres of ethanol a year. The company says that this will be equivalent to 20% of Zambia’s petroleum use and will help the country reduce its import bill by $100m. But countries like Zambia have a long way to go before they can replicate Brazil, where over 1.5m people are employed directly and indirectly in ethanol production. Brazil’s success in enabling a much greater role for ethanol has depended on its ability to require its car manufacturers to produce “flex fuel vehicles” that can run on fuel with a very high ethanol content.
Petrol sold in Brazil has a standard ethanol content of 27% – and many vehicles can run purely on ethanol. Elsewhere, ethanol can make up no more than 10-15% of gasoline at the pump. In the absence of a domestic car manufacturing industry in most African countries, governments have fewer levers to stimulate the growth of a biofuels industry.
Another opportunity comes from sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Production of SAF from biofuels is currently negligible, making up less than 0.1% of aviation fuel used worldwide. A huge ramping-up of production will be needed in the coming years. The EU is currently considering targets for SAF to provide as much as 85% of aviation fuel by 2050.
A 2019 study by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and the South African branch of the World Wildlife Fund found a “meaningful” potential to produce jet fuel using biomaterials in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo and the Gulf of Guinea region. It warned, however, that the amount of land available to produce biofuels will substantially decline by 2050, due to the need to grow more food.
A Guest Editorial