Driving Change: Harnessing the Potential of Biofuels for Sustainable Development in Nigeria and West Africa
Using Biofuels as substitute for gasoline has become a major global strategy by leaders across the world. This is because of the need first, to address the environmental risks associated with carbon dioxide and other Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) emitted into the atmosphere which deplete the ozone layer, excessively warming the planet earth. Secondly, the rising cost of fossil fuel for transport and industrial uses. Thirdly, the need to address energy risks due to supply volatility. There are also the environmental hazards associated with fossil fuel production and the need to address energy shortages resulting from rapid industrialization. What makes biofuels attractive as substitute even to oil producing countries like Nigeria lies in the fact that it helps to conserve scarce and depletable fossil oil by reducing dependence on it, is renewable, has practically no emission of GHGs and other pollutants, improves rural income and employment, reduces foreign outflow and is generally looked upon as the starting point for the creation of a clean economy. For this purpose, the Federal Government of Nigeria has approved the Nigerian Biofuels Policy and incentives package and published it as Federal Republic of Nigeria Official gazette No 72, Vol. 94 of 20th June 2007.
Sweet sorghum is one of the most promising feedstocks for biofuels production. There are several advantages to growing this crop. First, it is hardy and thrives in arid conditions such as obtains across the northern parts of West Africa where precipitation is low and access to irrigation water is limited. At the same time, it is able to withstand storms and flooding and thus reduces the risk of crop failure. This is especially important considering that lately; Nigeria and other countries in the West African sub-region have been experiencing extreme weather disturbances such as extended dry seasons in some areas and increasingly strong rainfall and flooding in others. These have caused serious disruptions in the region’s agricultural supply chain given the inability of farmers to plant crops for lack of irrigation during extended dry seasons in some areas while other areas suffer from crop failures due to storm occurrence.
Second, yield of bioethanol from sweet sorghum in a single planting cycle of 120 days is comparable to that of sugarcane and by far better than cassava. Being such a short duration crop it can be grown for three cycles as compared to just one cycle of 15months for sugar. Also, the input requirement such as fertilizers and irrigation water is low. It provides also substantial returns to farmers given the fact that they are able to sell the grains and also the leaves and the stalks. Tests at Ilemeso (Ekiti State of Nigeria) and Arigidi in Ondo State have shown that sweet sorghum can produce 3-5 mts of grain, 50-80 mts of stalks and 10-12 mts of green leaves per hectare in one cropping season of 120 days. This will be doubled in two cropping cycles per year. Stalks are used as feedstocks for bioethanol production and sold at reasonable prices; grains are use for food by humans or animals or used for malting and beer production while the leaves are used as livestock feed. The crushed biomass stalks are used as raw materials (bagasse) in the production of electricity from co-generation ancillaries. Owing to a requirement for crop rotation and opportunity for rain water harvesting, safflower, another draught resistant oil crop and soya beans are also grown. In a single industrial complex, consisting of very simple activity units therefore it is possible to produce bioethanol, biodiesel, steam, electric power, quality beef, dairy, poultry and fish in large quantities. Global Biofuels Ltd is developing such a complex at Ilemeso and Arigidi in the northern parts of Ondo and Ekiti States of Nigeria. Similar plants are planned to be established at Kwara, Osun, Oyo, Kogi, Kaduna, Kano, Zamfara, Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa and such other States in Nigeria that lie between Latitudes 70 and 140 North of the Equator. Preliminary tests conducted by Scientists from Global Biofuels Ltd in collaboration with local and international crop research institutes show that these areas are suitable for the sustainable commercial cultivation of sweet sorghum, safflower, soya beans and other energy crops considered central to the development of the proposed agro-based industries in Nigeria and across the West African Sub-region.
Third, the production cost of fuel ethanol from sweet sorghum is low and ranges between US$ 0.29-US$ 0.32/liter using the data for Open Pollinated Sweet Sorghum Varieties generated at the feedstocks Research Department of Global Biofuels Ltd. This is lower than the feedstocks costs of sugarcane, cassava, maize and molasses per liter of bioethanol. With hybridization, and improved farm mechanization, the crop productivity (for brix and bagasse) is expected to improve and the feedstock costs will surely go down. Hence, while the prospective investors can earn reasonable rates of return using the sweet sorghum OPV’s as feedstock, they can also look forward to improved incomes as new varieties are developed through research efforts and commercialized.
Fourthly, sweet sorghum can sequester carbon dioxide better than other crops and this peculiarity of the crop can be traded in the carbon market. Additional earnings from carbon and methane credits through the use of biomass for electricity generation, methane gas capture and utilization from livestock production practices that emphasize switching of pasture grasses with the highly nutritious sweet sorghum leaves supplemented with small amounts of bagasse, grains and soybean cake residues and other financial measures indicate the profitability of bioethanol production from sweet sorghum. For a plant capacity of 240KLPD the NPV and IRR is US$195 million and 37% respectively. The payback period is 5 years. The figures are even more promising for higher plant capacities. With his type of picture, possibility exists for rapid geographical expansion into other countries in West Africa following a pre-determined growth pipeline, investment strategy and market penetration, thanks to the strong support and endorsement by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) who has adopted the initiative for implementation across West Africa.
Lastly, the market for bioethanol is a huge captive market in Nigeria and across the West African sub-region, another factor that is attracting investors to enter the business of bioethanol processing. It will require 15 bioethanol plants of approximately 200KLPD production capacity each to meet the requirement of an E10 blend by 2015 as mandated by the Kyoto protocol. In Nigeria, with daily consumption of 30 million liters of fossil petrol, this amounts to 3 million liters of fuel ethanol per day requirement. The substitution of gasoline by ethanol can go as high as 20% if the supply of gasoline worsens in the future without significant changes to existing motor vehicles, storage and dispensing facilities. In addition, demand from markets such as Europe, Japan and China is huge. Investment from these countries who are also signatories to the Kyoto protocol in addition to the synergy between research and commercial technologies and the prospects for multiple revenue earnings from electricity, edible oils, livestock, fish, organic manure, compressed carbon dioxide carbon and methane credits (all produced from the same plant) may trickle in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the form of equity participation. This is even so as the World Bank in an unprecedented report released late on Wednesday 7th July, 2010 in Vienna Austria, which reviewed the business environment in 87 countries across the globe, described Nigeria as one of the most open countries for foreign equity ownership.
Overall, it may be concluded that the country Nigeria and indeed the entire West African sub-region stand to benefit from additional jobs created, carbon and methane credit earned, foreign exchange savings, a cleaner environment, reduced carbon footprint, energy and food sufficiency, economic diversification, arrest of rural/urban drift and the general wellbeing of the citizenry with the promotion of sweet sorghum for the sustainable production of fuel ethanol.