Biofuels in Eastern and Southern
Africa
Outline
• Overview of energy sector
• Bio-energy
• Bio-fuels – Status and Trends
–
–
–
–
–
Bioethanol
Biomass cogeneration
Biogas
Biodiesel
Biomass gasification
• Way Forward
Overview of Energy Sector
• Energy use in eastern
and Southern Africa Oil&Gas
dominated by
15%
biomass (wood,
charcoal, bio
residues)
Others
5%
Hydro/coal
10%
• Low levels of access
to modern energy
services
Biomass/
Woodfuel
70%
Typical National Energy Supply
Biofuels – Key drivers
Percentage Share of Export Earnings Spent on Petroleum Products,
2000
25
% of export earnings
20
15
10
5
0
Rwanda
Uganda
Kenya
Tanzania
Zimbabwe
Biofuels – Key Drivers
• Rising oil costs
• Lead phase-out programmes in
southern Africa
• Declining biofuel production costs –
Ethanol
• Carbon finance
• Bio-ethanol and cogeneration well
developed in the region
• Other biofuels at different stages of
development
Bioethanol – Status and Trends
• Widely developed in the region
• Linked mainly to sugar industry and
cogeneration
• Ethanol produced in Zimbabwe, South
Africa, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia
and Swaziland
• Plans to produce ethanol in Sudan and
Zambia
• Ethanol blending practiced in Malawi
• Blending practiced in Zimbabwe and
Kenya in the past
• Plans to introduce blending in South
Africa if legislation is approved
Ethanol Potential from Cane in
Selected African Countries
Country
Cane crushed
(2002) Tons
Ethanol production
potential*, 000
Liters (2002)
Kenya
5,904,108
413,288
Sudan
5,821,000
407,470
Tanzania
3,628,800
254,016
Malawi
2,095,065
146,655
Ethiopia
1,147,283
80,310
Uganda
1,707,000
119,490
Swaziland
6,861,600
480,312
* Estimated ethanol potential assuming an average of 70 litres of
ethanol produced per tonne of cane crushed and that all cane is used
for ethanol production (SEI, 2003; TaTEDO, 2006)
Case Study – Ethanol in Malawi
• Ethanol production started in 1982 at
Dwangwa Sugar Mill, run by Ethanol
Company of Malawi (Ethco)
• Second ethanol plant was built in
2004 at Nchalo Sugar Mill run by
Press Cane
• Both plants have combined capacity
of 30 million litres per year
• The two plants are located to the
countries sugar factories (Nchalo and
Dwangwa)
Ethanol Production in Malawi (litres)
Year Ethanol
Rectified
Portable
Total
To date
2000 11,625,036 352,019
211,319
12,188,374
199,363,988
2001 11,167,122 546,707
271,879
11,985,708
211,349,696
2002 10,987,543 431,256
345,786
11,764,585
223,114,281
2003 8,375,761
610,399
230,660
10,222,767
233,337,048
2004 8,375,761
751,567
275,837
9,403,165
242,740,213
Source: Tembo, 2006
Case study - Ethanol production in
Kenya
• Kenya’s quest for alternative source of fuel
sparked off by oil crisis in the 1970s
• The Agro Chemical & Food Corporation (ACFC)
established in 1978 – with the objective of
utilizing surplus molasses from sugar industry to
produce ethanol
• ACFC installed capacity of 60,000 liters per day,
daily average of 45,000 litres per day
• ACFC collapsed in the 1990s
Case Study - Ethanol production in
Kenya
• Ethanol production revived in 2001 through
Kisumu Ethanol Plant in Western Kenya
• Private entity Energem owns 55% of the company
• Produces 60,000 lpd of industrial ethanol
• Other products include: beverage grade, yeast,
carbon dioxide, alcohol, portable alcohol for
beverages and chemical industries
• Market for the ethanol: local market, Uganda,
Rwanda, and Central Africa
Case Study - Ethanol Production in
Kenya
Ethanol Production in Kenya
Litres per Day (l/d)
300,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
Mar-05
Apr-05
Source: Ethanol Producer Magazine
Feb '07
Future Projections
Ethanol - What worked
 Building on an existing industry – both the Ethanol
Companies in Malawi and Kenya piggybacked on the
sugar industry
 Government and private sector commitment – the
Malawian and Kenyan governments created a conducive
environment for private sector to invest in production,
distribution and marketing of ethanol
 Long-term commitment - Key players in the Malawian
energy sector demonstrated long term commitment to
biofuels through the testing of a car that can run on
ethanol blended fuel
 Ready local market – ethanol used in the blending of
transport fuel up to 20% thereby reducing fuel imports
Biomass Cogeneration – Status and
Trends
• Widely developed in the region - Most sugar industries in
eastern and southern Africa currently practicing cogeneration for own use
• Important option as agriculture and agro-industries
account for close to 50% of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP
and over 70% of employment
• Sugar industry directly or indirectly impact on 4-7 million
people in Western parts of Kenya
• Could be replicated across all agro-industries
– Wood/timber, pulp and paper
– Coffee, sisal, palm oil, tea, cocoa, tobacco, etc
Case study - Cogeneration in Mauritius
 Successful in sale of power to
the grid
 Accounts for close to 40% of a
725MW national generation
capacity (of which 25%
bagasse)
 Began with smaller installations
(1.5MW - 5MW, now installing
70MW plants)
 Grid connected cogeneration
operational in Uganda, Kenya,
Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and plans
underway in Malawi, Ethiopia,
Swaziland and South Africa
Power Generation – Mauritius 2004
Others
Sugar Industry
Case study - Cogeneration in Mauritius
Sugar Sector Reform initiatives & Bagasse Energy
Year
1985
1988
Policy
initiatives
Emphasis on
Sugar Sector Action
Bagasse energy policy evoked
Plan
Sugar Industry
Efficiency Act
Bagasse Energy
1991 Development
Programme
-Tax free revenue from sales of bagasse
and electricity
-Export duty rebate on bagasse savings
for firm power production
-Capital allowance on investment in
bagasse energy
-Diversify energy base
-Reduce reliance on imported fuel
-Modernise sugar factories
-Enhanced environmental benefits
Case study - Cogeneration in Mauritius
Sugar Sector Reform initiatives & Bagasse Energy
Year
Policy initiatives Emphasis on
1997
Blue Print on the
Centralisation of
Cane Milling
Activities
Facilitate closure of small mills with
concurrent increase in capacities and
investment in bagasse energy
2001
Sugar Sector
Strategic Plan
-Enhance energy efficiency in milling
-Decrease number and increase capacity of
mills
-Favour investment in cogeneration units
2005
Roadmap for the
Mauritius Sugarcane
Industry for the 21st
Century
-Reduction in the number of mills to 6 with a
cogeneration plant annexed to each plant
Case Study - Cogeneration in Mauritius
Energy Pricing
Power mode
Power
Plant
Price – Rs (us
¢)/kWh
Year
Characteristics
Intermittent
-
0.16 (0.6)
1982
Price frozen since 1982
Continuous
Medine
0.55 (1.9)
1982
No change in price since 1982 –no changes
brought to the plant
Continuous
6 PPs
1.05 (3.7)
1997
44% of kWh price indexed to changes in oil
price and the other 56% is fixed
1.40 (4.9)
2000
Firm
FUEL
coal - 1.63 (5.7)
bag. - 1.56 (5.5)
1985
Invested in new equipment
Indexed to coal price
Firm
DRBC
coal - 1.53 (5.4)
bag. - 1.46 (5.1)
1998
Invested in second hand equipment
Indexed to coal price
Firm
CTBV
both - 1.72 (6.0)
2000
Indexed to coal price, cost of living in
Mauritius, foreign exchange rate fluctuations
Case Study - Share Ownership Of Cogen
Plants
• Firm
–
–
–
–
Corporate sector
Strategic Partner
SIT (Small planters/workers)
State Investment Corporation
51%
27%
14%
8%
• Continuous
– Corporate sector
– SIT (Sugar Investment Trust)
80%
20%
• Equitable sharing of ownership of and revenue from
cogeneration ensures even smallest low-income farmer
gets a portion of revenue
• In turn, leads to exceptionally strong & consistent policy
support
Cogeneration in Mauritius - Key Lessons
• Pre-determined feed-in tariff for cogen power which
reduced investment risk
• Higher prices offered for firm power/utility level cogen
electricity generation, which encouraged higher
investments in cogen from sugar industry
• Government played “honest broker” key role in power
purchase agreements and setting feed-in tariff (key factor)
– reduced the lengthy and sometimes acrimonious tariff
negotiations
• Centralization of sugar factories to capture the benefits of
economies of scale
• Revenue sharing with even the smallest sugarcane
farmers, which ensured long-term commitment
Biogas – Status and Trends
• Some experience in the region with
mixed results
• Institutional digesters more successful
than domestic units
• Tanzania has registered good progress more than 4,000 domestic-size biogas
plants have been in Tanzania during the
past 20 years
• An estimated 256 biogas digesters
installed in Zimbabwe
• Pilot biogas projects implemented in
Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan
• Large scale biogas plant (10 MW)
planned in South Africa using landfill gas
Source The Republic of Uganda,2007
Biodiesel – Status and Trends
• Production of biodiesel drawing a lot of
attention in the region
• Technology still to be applied on a wide scale
• A number of crops already grown in the region
suited for biodiesel production i.e. palm oil,
sunflower, soyabean, maize and Jatropha
• Zimbabwe has ambitious Jatropha biodiesel
programme
• A private South African company running
Jatropha oil initiatives in Malawi, Zambia and
Madagascar
• In Zambia, biodiesel trials conducted on a small
scale using Jatropha
• Individual farmers running biodiesel plants in
South Africa
• Pilot biodiesel projects in Kenya
(Vanilla/Jatropha Foundation), Uganda and
Tanzania (Tatedo)
Biomass Gasification – Status and
Trends
• Largely embryonic- no commercial biogasification projects running in the region
• A few donor funded demonstration projects
implemented
• Experimental systems reported at universities in
South Africa
• Demonstration projects implemented in
Tanzania (Tanzania Wood Industry Corporation)
• Biomass gasifiers implemented in Ethiopia,
Sudan – faced operational challenges
Way Forward
• Short Term
– Focus on proven options that build on existing agroindustries that use available agro-wastes (such as bioethanol and cogeneration)
– Implement proven policy measures
• Pre-determined prices for biofuels (feed-in tariff for cogen power
& attractive price for liquid biofuels)
• Standard power purchase agreement for cogen power
• Compulsory blending ratios for transport fuels
– Use model examples such as Mauritius to develop
regional replication programmes & focal points of
regional networks
Way Forward
Medium to Long Term
– Research and Development on embryonic options
(Biomass Gasification)
– Demonstration projects for embryonic options
– Regional and International networks for sharing of
experiences, skills and information