ethanol fuel production and use in kenya for sustainable ... - lumes

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government subsidies in the countries such as Brazil that produce and use it as a fuel (OECD -UNEP, 1999). But when compared to the money that the country could save by reducing theamount of oil imported, the subsidies could be justified as shifting the dollar debt caused bytrade imbalance from the debt side to subsidies side (Moreira et al., 1997). Besides the ethanolprices will not be always high because with improving technologies, and economies of scale,the cost of producing ethanol will decrease (Moreira et al., 1997). In addition the rising pricesof petroleum due to the increasing global demand, energy insecurity from the dependence onpetroleum fuels and concerns about air quality and global warming will make ethanolcompetitive in the near future. Some researchers are optimistic that even if the oil pricesremain low ethanol will soon be competitive when and if in addition to ethanol productionelectricity is generated from bagasse for use as energy in the plant and for sale to the nationalelectricity grid (UNDP, 1997). From one perspective, it can also be argued from that if thesubsidies are going to contribute to pulling a majority of the rural poor from their miserableconditions, save on health costs and act as a safety net in case of future oil crisis then thesubsidies are worth having. Nevertheless, some opponents argue that subsidies increase taxes,benefit the rich farmers further impoverishing the poor (Niven, 2004).Engine ModificationAdopting ethanol use for transport in Kenya might require that some engine modifications aredone on the vehicle which could be expensive. In the USA, it is estimated that the cost ofmodifying a conventional car so that it can run on100% Ethanol is at about US $160 (EPAC,2004). However the modifications are only necessary when neat ethanol is used becauseengines can run on gasoline-ethanol blends without the need for any engine modification;moreover the engine changes can easily be done by trained mechanics implying that the costswill not be that high (IDRC, 1994). The second option would be to manufacture some carsthat are already designed to run on neat ethanol like they did in Brazil (IDRC, 1994).4.2 ETHANOL PRODUCTION STAGE4.2.1 Environmental ImpactsSoilsOne would expect that soils would diminish after years and years of cultivating the same cropfor instance sugarcane on the same piece of land year after year but in Brazil (Moreira et al.,1997) there were actually a gradual improvement in the soil quality that actually improved theyield of sugarcane for decades which they achieved by improving the sugarcane varieties,recycling of nutrients and by improving the soil preparation techniques.EmissionsThe use of ethanol emits less particulate matter into the atmosphere (Mulawa, et al. 1997)however (Niven, 2004) argues that this may not be necessarily true when a full life cycleanalysis is done especially in the case where sugarcane is used to produce ethanol; he arguesthat burning of cane fields before harvesting causes an important amount of particulateemissions. The pre-harvest burning is practiced for pest control and to reduce harvesting costs(Moreira et al., 1997). However (Moreira et al., 1997) points out that these particular19
particulate emissions from cane fields have not been reported to cause any human healthproblems and the only problem is that it is in form of huge amounts of smoke and thusobviously a nuisance. Nevertheless, particulates from smoke should not be difficult to controlsince policies can be passed prohibiting the burning of fields or provision of incentives suchas providing energy markets for the residues (Moreira et al., 1997). But this could prove to bea difficult task to achieve for instance a study reveals that for instance, there is a lawprohibiting the burning of cane fields in Săo Paulo but the law is not respected as it is difficultfor farmers to change from old farming practices (Moreira et al., 1997). However, energymarkets for residues in Kenya since a majority of the rural poor depend on biomass fuelswhich are not always easily available. From the field survey (questionnaire to policy makers)it was noted that biomass accounts for 70% of the total energy used in the country.BiodiversityThere is speculation by a few scientists that the attempts to make ethanol cheaper couldintroduce unknown risks to biodiversity since it will involve expansion of agriculture andprobably biogenetic engineering while proponents of ethanol argue that the threats tobiodiversity are minimal (Niven, 2004). Moreover, despite the controversies surroundingbioengineering its benefits cannot be ignored because some benefits in fact better theenvironment and protect biodiversity both directly and indirectly; for instance pest resistantcrop varieties lead to less use of pesticides which could wipe out some non target species(Carter, 2001). Also the study did not come across literature which implied that Brazil whichis world’s greatest producer of ethanol has lost any of its biological species due to ethanolproduction. However, it is now generally known that the loss of biodiversity is morethreatened when people are poor and thus deplete some resources such as forests and huntingof certain animal species to extinction.CO 2As earlier indicated, ethanol is said to significantly reduce CO 2 emissions through its carbonrecycle however this balance could be offset due to the amount of fossil fuels needed toproduce ethanol and to produce and transport the fertilisers. There are two ways to deal withthat: firstly, farmers could be encouraged to practice organic farming where they use compostmanure from their farms instead of chemical fertilisers, or secondly, the development of seedvarieties that require less fertilisers. In addition plants should be located near the markets rawmaterials and labour where possible to reduce long distance transportation of raw material tothe processing plants and back to the market and of labour to and fro.SECTION 24.3 POTENTIAL CROPS THAT CAN BE USED TO PRODUCEETHANOLYIELD ETHANOL ETHANOLCrop ton/ha/year litres/ton litres/ton/yearSugarcane 50-90 70-90 3500-8000Sugar beet 15-50 90 1350-5500Maize 1.7-5.4 360 600-1944Wheat 1.5-2.1 340 510-714Table 2: Raw materials that could be used as feedstock in ethanol productionSource: adopted and modified from (BOSTID, 1983)20
Page 1 and 2: LUND UNIVERSITYInternational Master
Page 3 and 4: AcknowledgementsI would like to tha
Page 5 and 6: Table of ContentsAbstract .........
Page 7 and 8: List of acronymsACE - Atmosphere Cl
Page 9 and 10: The oil crisis and low sugar prices
Page 11 and 12: patterns that may be used to predic
Page 13 and 14: REINFORCING LOOP (R1)An increase in
Page 15 and 16: World Oil Prices and Inflation Tren
Page 17 and 18: the strengthened greenhouse effect
Page 19 and 20: Available arable land(carrying capa
Page 21 and 22: need for higher agricultural growth
Page 23 and 24: atmosphere” leads to a decrease i
Page 25: evaporative emissions reacts with h
Page 29 and 30: the yields on table 1 probably beca
Page 31 and 32: pastoralists and thus do not cultiv
Page 33 and 34: contributes to global warming. Petr
Page 35 and 36: Gariazzo et al. (2005) Monitoring a
Page 37 and 38: Tsai, et al. (2005) A Hematology Su
Page 39 and 40: Fossil fuels1. Does the country imp

ethanol fuel production and use in kenya for sustainable ... - lumes

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