Francis Kemausuor The Energy Center KNUST, Kumasi

Biofuels production began in response to a need to boost socio-economic development, improve agriculture in particular or to respond to an oil shock. In the EU, biofuels were introduced to prevent the decline of rural areas and respond to increasing levels of energy demand

In the Brazil and the US, it was due to the oil crisis of the 1970s and then later in the US, to address a crisis in the corn industry.

In Ghana today:

We are net importers of oil

Fuels costs are high and unpredictable

Need to improve agricultural productivity

Need for rural economic development

Need to address climate related challenges

Many players involved Some are vulnerable and must be protected The big players if left unguarded might bully their way through Policies are necessary because production of some feedstocks is large scale and dedicated to biofuels, rather than crops already in production.

Large scale / investor owned

Small scale / farmer owned

Mono cropping

Multi cropping
Export / local transport use

Need for Impact Assessment

* Some may be location specific or national

Address food security issues; Promote research; Churn out programmes to support smallholder involvement; Strengthen environmental policies to prevent damage from toxic waste and large volumes of by-products that may have little economic value.

Tariff policies Incentives

Tax rebates if necessary

Processing plants Chemicals, solvents, etc. (not produced in country)

Production targets
Mandates on blending Perhaps a Biofuels Agency

Land use maps Standards Feasibility studies

Support research

Governments policy directives regarding:

Feedstock choices Scale of production Cropping patterns

National targets and roadmap

Standards, regulatory issues

Protection of existing farm lands Opportunities for feedstock production / guaranteed prices

Second generations (2G) biofuels still in pilot phase and expensive Expansion of first generation biofuels projects and preparing ground for 2G biofuels

National / regional timetable to adopt and phase in 2G biofuels will drive research Government support critical at the research stage to offer motivation to researchers

In the US Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, 9.0 billion gallons of renewable fuel needed in 2008 and rises to 36 billion gallons by 2022. Of the latter total, 21 billion gallons is required to be obtained from cellulosic ethanol and other advanced biofuels The EU Directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources cautiously accentuate commercial availability of second generation biofuels.

Republic of South Africa Under production plans: More efficient technologies

i.e. second-generation technologies, which are not dependent on food crops, are being developed and South Africa should keep abreast of these developments by investing in research and development.

Under Future Research and Development: The

research focus areas will include the investigation of alternative feedstock, development of energy crops (i.e. drought tolerance, high yield per ha, energy efficiency etc.) and improvement of known technologies whilst further developing, supporting and piloting the second generation technologies.

Others countries glance over it

To substitute national petroleum fuels consumption with biofuel by 10% by 2020 and 20% by 2030. To achieve the targets would require strategies focusing on the following actions:

Encouraging the commercial scale production of biofuel feedstock;

Creating demand for biofuel; and

Sustaining supply of biofuel.

On land, pollution balance: Recent developments with cellulosic ethanol production and commercialisation may allay some of these concerns. On feedstock: Promote the use of waste cooking fats and oil as biofuel feedstock. On R&D: The conduct of R&D and other related activities for the development of biofuel, especially next generation biofuels, would require substantial amount of funds to implement.

Even at high oil prices, 2G biofuels will probably not become fully commercial nor enter the market for several years to come without significant additional government support; Most biofuel policies in Africa mention 2G biofuels but do not have clear cut mandates; Ghanas draft bioenergy policy document considers second generation biofuels to some extent. More action needed and researchers should be taking advantage;

In the interim, first generation biofuels, and related issues, should be promoted with full force and supported by an equal measure of research.