Man vs vehicle – using biofuel

An increasing number of vehicles has also caused the demand of fuel to augment. This resulted in soaring prices of oil. Therefore, the world was in search of alternative energy sources. Finally, it found biofuel to run vehicles on roads. This fuel is mainly being produced by using food crops that made food items costlier for people. The poor can not afford to buy food items and with every passing day millions of people are going under the poverty line. Therefore, there is a battle between man and vehicle.

Biofuel – a global outlook
Global demand for biofuels was estimated to expand by almost 20 per cent per annum, beyond 2011. It was to reach 92 million metric tonnes in 2011. The expansion will take place without considering the impact of biofuels on environment and world food supplies. Market expansion will be led by a more than doubling of the global market for bioethanol, while the biodiesel market displays and even more rapid growth. Other biofuels will also achieve double digit gains, though from a much smaller base. Demand for biofuels in the world has expanded rapidly in recent years due to domestic requirements, rising oil prices, increasing global warming, profit making tendencies and investment opportunities in establishing biofuel units. Many countries have passed laws that supported biofuel industries.
World bioethanol demand has benefitted from a powerful farm lobby in the United States that has succeeded in passing a renewable fuel mandate, and rising oil prices have boosted bioethanol demand in the world. Besides, global warming has helped stimulate both bioethanol and biodiesel demand in the European Union, and in several countries in the Asia Pacific region. Global trade in biofuels will continue to grow as many countries in Western Europe, North America and Asia find it difficult to meet demand with traditional domestic sources.
World biofuel production was expected to increase as most countries look forward to foster domestic biofuel industries, to reduce reliance upon imported oil and to continue economic activities. This production will come from cereal based crops, i.e., maize, corn, sugarcane and wheat.
Sugarcane based bioethanol production in Latin America and biodiesel production will mainly be produced from soy oil in the Americas, rapeseed oil in Europe and palm and increasingly jatropha in the Asia-Pacific region. The next generation cellulosic bioethanol and algal biodiesel technologies will become commercially significant in the future.
In Kenya, a sugar company has planned to start production of ethanol from sugarcane by the end of 2011. The project will cost $64.5 million. The plant is expected to produce about 22 million litres of ethanol per year that will be sold primarily to the East African Community and COMESA member states to produce biodiesel.
Algae are a non food oil crop. The advantage of algae is its widespread availability, higher oil yields and it reduces the pressure on cultivated land for production of biodiesel. Thus, algae will be the future of fuel. Algae are incredible as a fuel source and some types of algae have a 50 per cent oil content, which can be used to make biofuel more economically and without affecting food crops that are consumed by human beings.
Algae can produce between 1,000 to 20,000 gallons of oil per acre, depending on the specific strain. This enormous productivity, as compared with agricultural based biofuels is notable.

Pakitsan’s urgent need
Pakistan is a fuel deficit country and its POL products import bill is increasing day by day. For instance, it is estimated that the coun
try has to pay about $38 billion from present $11billion by 2015. With growing demand, the electricity shortfall has reached 5600MW.
Therefore, it is necessary to increase power production through alternative energy sources. The country had to give $6 billion subsidy on oil in 2008 alone. The Government of Brazil has shown keen interest in providing technical assistance to Pakistan for developing biofuel from sugarcane so that dependency on gasoline is reduced. It is also ready to help in developing ethanol from other traditonal products.
Brazil is using E100 that has been introduced in all vehicles. Pakistan is an agricultural country and has vast opportunities to generate power from ethanol, following the Brazilian model.
Biofuel is an environmental friendly fuel and a study carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture and Production indicates the potential of generating biofuel from sugarcane. Sugar industry is one of the largest industries in Pakistan. About 84 sugar mills have produced about 4.1 million tonnes of sugar in 2010-11 and 3.3 million tonnes in 2009-10.
During July- March 2010-11, sugar output showed an increase of 26.5 per cent as compared to figures from 2009-10. Yet, the production potential could not be fully realised because sugarcane yield remained below the global average. The area cultivated with sugarcane has remained more or less the same during the last ten years and is about 1,030,000 hectares. The production of sugarcane was 43,606,000 tonnes, in 2000-01, which rose to 49,373,000 tonnes in 2009-10. The yield per hectare increased from 45.4 tonnes to 52.4 tonnes, during 2000-10, showing an increase of 15.4 per cent. The capacity utilisation of sugar mills was 72.8 per cent in FY08 that decreased to 49.1 per cent in FY09 and remained 48.2 per cent in FY010. Total capacity of sugar production is 6.5 million tonnes.
Emerging markets in industrial alcohol and fuel ethanol showed prospects of making sugarcane production economically viable. About 80 to 85 per cent of the total sugarcane production goes to the production of sugar. The remaining 15 to 20 per cent is converted into ‘gur’. Cane crushing produces sugar and molasses as byproducts. The molasses-to-bio-ethanol conversion process is conducted in distilleries. In Pakistan, about 21 distilleries produce industrial alcohol in the country.
The production of ethanol or ethyl alcohol from starch or sugar based feedstock is among man’s earliest ventures into value added processing. There are two production processes: wet milling and dry milling. The main difference between the two is in the initial treatment of the grain.
Industrial alcohol can be converted into fuel alcohol by a simple process of using molecular sieve technology, which requires a capital expenditure of about $1.5 million and can be completed in 5 to 6 months. About 8 distilleries have installed the sieve technology to process industrial ethanol into fuel ethanol. A study on ‘Biofuel Prospects in Pakistan’ has indicated that Pakistan is second largest exporter of industrial ethanol to European countries. This potential may be utilised in generating biofuel, as value-addition makes a product more profitable. The E10 is a new product and is not well-known in the country. It took almost 40 years to introduce renewable energy in Brazil. Now, renewable energy represents 46 per cent of Brazil’s total annual energy supply. Main sugar producing countries like Brazil, China, India and Thailand have designed fuel ethanol programmes.

How is the world reacting?
The government of India legislated five per cent blending which would require five million tonnes of sugarcane annually. At present about 1.5 billion litres of alcohol is being derived from sugarcane and sugar byproducts and is being utilised for industrial and food purposes.
According to an estimate, India requires about 352 million litres of ethanol for E5 blending. Under an agreement the oil industry will purchase 434 million litres of ethanol from Indian Sugar Mills Association members, at Indian Rs19 per litre. The forecast for overall annual output in 2005-06 was 1.7 billion litres approximately, out of which about 1.2 billion litres were to be used for beverage and chemicals and the remaining quantity of 500 million litres was available for blending.
Thailand is promoting plantation of palm, cassava and tapioca, substitutes of sugarcane to produce ethanol and announced its programme in 2001. The waiver of excise duty on fuel ethanol has encouraged setting up of new plants. It is forecasted that ethanol consumption was likely to be about one million litres a day by the year 2006 which was to increase by 3 million litres per day in 2011.
The blending basis of 10 per cent E10 in Pakistan would only consume 160,000 tonnes of ethanol compared to the estimated capacity of about 400,000 tonnes based on a 1:5 ratio derived from about 2 million tonnes of molasses.
Ethanol can be produced from a wide variety of plant based feedstock, most commonly grain or sugar crops. It is then blended with gasoline as oxygenate or fuel extender for use in gasoline vehicles, or it can be used alone in “flexible-fuel vehicles” that run on any blend of ethanol and gasoline. About 90 per cent of Brazil’s electricity comes from renewable sources, especially from hydroelectricity. Under the ethanol program, Brazil has become an energy independent country. During the 1970s, Brazil was importing over 80 per cent of the oil it consumed. In 1975, Brazil made the National Alcohol Programme and aggressively implemented car conversion under the E100 programme under which cars operate on 100 per cent ethanol.
Flex-fuel vehicles were introduced in 2003. These vehicles run on 100 per cent ethanol, 25/75 per cent ethanol/gasoline blend, the 25 per cent minimum ethanol mandate, or any combination of the two. Today, more than 70 per cent of new cars sold in Brazil are flex-fuel. Brazil sugarcane production reached 423 million tonnes in 2005-06. This represented 31 per cent of world sugarcane production. Sugarcane production is divided equally between sugar production and ethanol production.
Experts say that WTO should come forward to protect human beings from starvation and prohibit production of biofuels from food crops. This action will help to maintain prices at a reasonable level.