Guyana remains committed to developing a bio-energy sector and several companies are conducting feasibility studies in addition to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) planning a small-scale demonstration ethanol plant at the Albion Estate in Berbice.
The corporation is working with Brazilian firm, USI, to establish the small-scale demonstration ethanol plant at the Albion Estate with part funding from a Technical Cooperation (TC) grant from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud told Stabroek News. In April 2008, the IDB announced that US$925,500 or $187.4 million in grants had been approved to encourage private investment in bio-fuel production here.
“The design of the plant has been completed and forwarded to the IDB for this approval. The plant will produce anhydrous ethanol using either sugar cane juice or molasses,” Persaud said. “The demonstration ethanol plant will be used for training and demonstrations to prospective investors,” he added. The minister said the development of this promising sector remains a top priority for the government and expressed optimism that “there will be forthcoming investment in the sector very soon”.
He pointed out that there are several foreign companies actively involved in feasibility activities in large-scale ethanol investment in Guyana. Earlier this week, a team from the Caribbean visited Guyana to pursue this, he said.
Persaud noted that government has a policy whereby it is intent on inviting private investment from the international and local communities for the development of this sector. He said at least five potential investors have been short listed and to date two of them have already visited Guyana and have met with stakeholders, including the visit by one of the Caribbean’s largest conglomerate earlier last week.
Meantime, the minister stressed that the Agro-Energy Policy clearly states that land used for food production will not be converted to grow bio-energy feedstock. He noted that government has allocated over 100,000 hectares of land in the Canje Basin to be used specifically for the growing of bio-energy feedstock. Additionally, he said, there are large parcels of land in the intermediate savannahs which may also be utilized. “The use of molasses as a feedstock for the production of ethanol is also being touted to investors. GuySuCo’s excess molasses is adequate enough to produce ethanol for the implementation of an E10 blend in Guyana,” he said.
He noted that having recognised that there is need to seriously address the adverse effects of climate change, Guyana had drafted an ‘Agro-energy Portfolio – A Strategic Framework for Implementation’ document. The purpose of this strategy document was to provide a roadmap for the development of a competitive and sustainable agro-energy sector in Guyana. Guyana also partnered with the Caribbean Renewable Energy Development Programme (CREDP), the IDB, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA) and the Organization of American States (OAS) in organizing a high-level Seminar on biofuels in August 2007.
In addition to the initial legislative framework, Persaud said, the TC with the IDB to expand bio-energy opportunities in Guyana was agreed upon. He noted that the main aim of the partnership, which commenced on September 23, 2008, is to provide assistance that will permit the government to define a critical path in order to promote the development of the bio-fuels sector.
He said the contract for the delivery of the service consultancies was awarded in July 2010 to a US-based consulting firm, Numark Associates Inc. Numark was tasked, among other things, with developing an appraisal system for bio-energy proposals from private developers, an investment strategy to attract bio-energy developers and capacity building programmes for local stakeholders. The subject of blending is also specifically addressed and a framework for the implementation of an E10 and B5 blend will be crafted.
The consultant has completed the draft of the first report which government has studied and given its comments. A final draft incorporating these comments is expected to be delivered this month, Persaud said.
In addition, he said, an assessment of the requirements for technical, operational and managerial skills upgrade was conducted by Numark during the last quarter of 2010. Based on those requirements a bio-energy training programme has been designed by Numark. The training programme is focused on first generation bio-fuels as the products that in the short term will play an important role in the energy matrix from Guyana. These include the production of bio-ethanol from sugar cane and the production of bio-diesel from oil palm.
In November 2009, President Bharrat Jagdeo, at a press conference had indicated that in the development of a local bio-fuel sector, Guyana will likely pursue next-generation bio-fuels, which are not made from food crops. Following high oil prices and with increasing concerns about carbon dioxide emissions –which contribute to global warming, from fossil fuels – tremendous interest had been shown in the bio-fuels sector globally. In Guyana, proposals were received from at least 11 companies interested in investing in developing a local bio-fuel/agro-energy sector.
Jagdeo had noted that there is new research ongoing into next-generation bio-fuels, pointing to new technologies such as cellulosic conversion, whereby bio-mass such as straw and other vegetation–considered useless now–are converted into bio-fuels. “So I think that’s going to be the future; another generation of bio-fuels that are made not from food crops but from other biomass. That is what we probably will support,” he had said at the time.
Meantime, Persaud said that the training programme developed by Numark will be divided into three tracks oriented towards three different target groups namely the technical, operative and managerial levels of bio-energy production; high-level policy-making and project appraisal and promotion level.
In April, the High Level Policy Making and the Project Appraisal and Promotion level course were delivered by Numark. The main beneficiaries of this training included the Ministry of Agriculture, the University of Guyana, the Guyana Energy Agency, the Guyana office for Investment, the Environmental Protection Agency, GuySuCo and the Guyana National Bureau of Standards. The third part of the training programme, which was delivered by Numark, concluded on Friday.
The minister said it has been recognised that UG will play a key part in the development of this sector and discussions surrounding the implementation of a bio-energy course at the university level is also taking place.
The IDB had noted that “Guyana has ideal conditions to develop bio-energy alternatives that can lower its oil import bill while attracting investment to the agricultural sector and generating new jobs — all in a socially and environmentally sustainable manner.”
When it had announced the TC grants, which comprise US$675,500 from the IDB’s Japan Special Fund and US$250,000 from the IDB’s Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Initiative Fund, it had noted that these will finance institutional strengthening for the country’s Agro-energy Board and technical support for the development of its national agro-energy policy and will be used to provide training for bio-energy technicians, operators and managers; as well as to finance field visits by foreign companies that want to explore investment opportunities in the bio-energy sector.
It had said also that the grants would be used to encourage private companies to conduct detailed feasibility and pre-investment studies in Guyana. In this regard, the IDB had said that under a matching grant concept, the IDB grants will provide up to US$50,000 per project to companies that wish to study the feasibility of a specific investment proposal.
IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno at a seminar on the agro-energy sector had emphasized Guyana’s outstanding bio-fuels potential while noting the possibility of cogenerating electricity with bagasse, a by-product of sugar and ethanol production plants. He said that preliminary IDB estimates indicated that Guyana could meet up to half of its electricity needs through cogeneration, substituting diesel and fuel oil currently used for electricity generation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
