REEEP

Biofuels - Mixed blessings

Cape Town, 01.02.2007 - Glynn Morris

Biofuels offer many socio-economic benefits, but these need to be balanced against environmental impacts.

The maize industry in South Africa is diversifying and prospering.  Ethanol Africa, a South African company that plans to produce ethanol from yellow maize, wants soon to list on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM). There are around 9,000 commercial maize producers in South Africa, which produces 8.8 million tonnes on average per year – one of its largest crops.  Ethanol could provide a new and much welcome source of earnings.

Ethanol Africa, which is one of the companies leading this move, plans to open eight ethanol plants over the next six years, the first of which will be located in Bothaville.  All will be located inland in the central and Eastern part of the country.  “The socio-economic benefits of biofuels are extremely clear – there’s a huge positive argument for it,“ emphasises Jo Kruger, the company’s managing director.

The prospect is an exciting one and is not lost on the South African government which approved a draft biofuels strategy in January of 2007. This strategy proposes that there be a mandatory inclusion of 4.5% of biofuels in road transport fuel by 2013. Implementation will mean an additional 1.3 million hectares of land will be needed to produce grain and oilseed to supply the biofuel industry. South Africa is likely to see under-used land in the economically depressed former homelands being developed to grow biofuel crops. By helping to jumpstart the biofuels industry the strategy should create 55,000 jobs while reducing the country’s climate-changing carbon emissions.

This is one reason why Ethanol Africa plans eventually to spread its operations to other African countries such as Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania and is also a major reason why several African governments, such as that of South Africa, have opted to take the biofuels route.  In South Africa, maize, sugar cane, soya and lesser known perennial plants are all feedstock options. 

But while it is hard to dispute the numerous economic and low carbon benefits arising from the industry’s development, several environmental problems (as well as some positive environmental spin-offs) are already becoming more visible.

The maize industry has been criticised for using fossil fuels at every stage in the production process.  Its cultivation uses fertilisers and tractors, and this is followed by energy used for processing and transportation.  According to the World Conservation Union, “maize farming appears to use 30% more energy than the finished fuel produces, and leaves eroded soils and polluted waters behind.”  Some studies confirm that at the very least, maize shows only a marginal positive energy balance in comparison to other crops, while others show its energy balance to be negative.

The sugar-bioethanol chain, which has provided huge benefits for Brazil, could also create jobs and income for several African countries, hence many countries are considering it.  A UK-Brazil-South Africa partnership study published in July 2006 on behalf of the UK Office of Science and Innovation said sugar cultivation could be more than doubled to 1.5 million hectares in the Southern African region over the next 10-15 years.

If so, sugar cane production would meet more than twice the current regional sugar consumption while also creating 7.3 billion litres of bioethanol each year. It is an attractive option and “has the potential to be among the lowest cost and lowest CO2 fuel chains,” according to the report’s authors.

There are around 47 000 registered sugarcane growers producing an average 22 million tonnes of sugarcane according to the South Africa Sugar Association. About 80% of production comes from large commercial players.  

But sugar production has created major concern in recent years. Future potential is limited in South Africa and one reason for this is the industry’s consumption of water. A 2005 WWF study found that 600 to 1000 litres of water are used to produce 1 kg of sugar, or one million litres of water to produce 12.5 tonnes of commercial cane. It is a water intensive crop that remains in the soil for the whole year.

Solutions are needed, especially in these arid countries.  WWF’s response has been to create a Sustainable Sugar Initiative, through which it plans to develop a set of standards for use by investors and producers. In South Africa itself, there is in any case little physical room for sugar cane expansion. Kruger estimates that at most there could be enough for two sugar cane-based ethanol plants.  However, new plantations and plants in neighbouring countries such as Mozambique will be under pressure to consider these issues.

Perhaps some of the most interesting developments are in the more unusual tropical plants being considered as biofuels feedstocks, many of which show a higher yield than maize and sugar cane.  Simon Wilson, is managing a South African biodiesel project for the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), a highly recognised global organisation promoting the development of clean and sustainable energy.  REEEP is funding biofuel projects in Africa.  He points out that the issue is a complex one, but that studies have noted negative environmental impacts from many of these plants, which are often grown on land that is degraded and not viewed as entirely arable.

“Given that marginal land is often a refuge for wildlife and biodiversity, it is likely that energy crops will have some of their greatest impact on these resources as is already being seen in South East Asia with the expansion of oil palm plantations into secondary forests which in turn is having a clear impact on orangutan populations, for example,” he explains. Africa is an enormous and unique continent, and the development of biofuels, whether in traditional crops or through tropical plants, is in many ways a step into the unknown.

Annie Sugrue, the South African co-ordinator for the international NGO Citizens United for Renewable Energy and Sustainability (CURES), is interested in the potential benefits of biofuels, but says that “the issues are not fully understood.”  She believes that a full life cycle analysis for different crops needs to be done. Nevertheless, some positive environmental benefits have been noted from plants being considered as biofuel feedstocks in South Africa.

Perennial crops, including jatropha, moringa (a tree whose bark, leaves and other parts can all be used) and two local plums, could be the way forward, according to Sugrue, not least because they are more productive. Jatropha, the tree cultivated by biodiesel company D1 Oils in Southern Africa, can generate 2.5 tonnes of biofuel/hectare out of jatropha in comparison to, for instance, soya, which averages at 0.8 tonnes/hectare.

But there are other benefits too: ”We have lots of arable land but it’s degraded, but long-term crops such as these help to stabilise and improve it over time,” Ms Sugrue says. Many sustainability campaigners favour the development of food forests that include different types of plants (trees and bushes) of different species and different heights.

It is a tricky problem. The financial gains from developing biofuels are attractive, since future high import demand is likely from mature economies in the European Union and Far East. But many of the environmental issues still need to be worked through.

REEEP as an organisation will continue to support the development of biofuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but the partnership will always ensure that projects take a comprehensive approach, requiring biofuels production to consider sustainability, economic development and land use holistically. REEEP does not support biofuels production that involves deforestation or displacement of food crops.