Biofuels in place of petrol

By S.P.U.S. Wickramasinghe

With the present crisis in the supply of petrol and diesel in Sri Lanka and world over, few articles have appeared in the press with regard to the importance of our producing biofuels.

I believe that all those who hanker for alternate fuels in Sri Lanka are in for a glorious letdown.

In 2002, a friend of mine had an order to export ethyl alcohol (ethanol – biofuel). The buyer wanted a part in the production process. In order to proceed with this, an application was made to the BOI to set up a small plant, based on starch-based feed stock.

This application was refused by the Director General Fiscal Policy. When queries were raised on what basis it was refused, an employee of the Finance Ministry phoned me at home and abused me.

Then in 2005, a few of us ex-employees of the Sugar Corporation wrote to the Government, suggesting that it restart the Hingurana and Kantale Sugar factories and that we would help the Government produce 48 million litres of substitutes for petrol. We were willing to work as employees. This offer was not replied. That is history.

The Government had given an undertaking at two international fora that no food item will be allowed to be converted to biofuels. Except straw and grass, which are soft cellulose, what else is there to convert to biofuels and secondly, where are the funds to finance research into hard cellulose – wood for example? Straw and grass have other avenues for disposal – the milk industry. That is also history.

What we mean by biofuels include a range of alcohols methyl, ethyl, butyl and amyl alcohols, better known as methanol, ethanol, butanol and pentanols. For some reason propyl alcohol (propanol) had never been discussed as a biofuel. There are references to pentanol as a fuel, but are few and rare. Pentanol is commercially very important.

To make methanol, the raw material generally used is wood and is expensive to make. Pectin from fruits had been made use to make methanol using liquefying enzymes – the process too is expensive.

The common bio fuels are ethanol and butanols. Ethanol is made in this country, even by the fast-disappearing faculty of home distillers. It is the drinking alcohol.

Butanol was made by the Post Graduate Institute of Agriculture at Peradeniya. That was in 2009, as a subject matter for a PhD degree. Publicity for this was given by Prof. Athula Perera. Their yields were very high 1:2 v/w. If anybody in the Government was interested in finding a direct substitute for petrol, it is butanol. Dave Ramey did a transcontinental trip across the US with the car powered purely by butanol.

The suggestion that the universities and technologists should initiate research into the production of biofuels is akin to the blind leading the blind.

I believe that this country imports about 38,000,000,000 litres of petrol a year. In the proposal presented to the Government in 2005, the country has the ability to produce 48,000,000,000 litres of bio-ethanol. This can be made using the existing facilities with a few modifications.

Making bio-ethanol is not chicken feed. If the country is to get into the production of bio-ethanol, major structural changes have to be made in the agricultural sector and in the Excise Act.

Having said that, the raw materials to make the required quantum of bio-ethanol have to be found. This can come from molasses and starch-based raw materials.

Neither molasses nor starch material can be produced to feed the biofuel industry, without a proper adjustment of the base price for the raw material. I would suggest Rs. 7,000 per MT of cane and Rs. 80,000 per MT of paddy. The production, processing, and marketing system will have to be rethought.

As an aside, let me make this comment. At Food City Matara, about four to five years ago, my attention was drawn to a lady who was making a fuss about the employees not helping her. She bought five kgs of Thai Royal Rice priced at Rs. 250 per kg. What surprised me was the quality of her dress and the quality of her behaviour. If I did not see it I would not have believed that such a transaction could have been financed by her. It is definitely beyond my purse.

It is said that most of the alcohol produced by the ethanol distilleries are misused. That can be kept in check by simple modifications to the production system.

Any fears of the people starving due to paddy being converted to alcohol are misplaced. The shortfall can be imported. It is cheaper than importing petrol and crude oil. The food vs. fuel debate arose in the US due to the fact that the food they are talking of is also a major export item in that country.

Corn (maize) prices are determined by three conflicting interests – local consumption, exports, and fuel – not taking into consideration the financial instruments that also intervene – hedging against losses and futures.

(The writer can be reached via email [email protected].)