Dear Editor,
What follows is a small contribution which comes at the juncture of two discussions lately current in the media, on energy and on agriculture in Guyana’s social, economic and natural environment.
Introductory remarks on Bio-Energy
Plant matter (biomass) is readily converted into useful energy. Economic demand is greatest for biomass processed into fuel for electricity generation
– via steam at larger scale (250 kw-2.5 mw or higher)
– via producer gas at smaller scale (15-300 kw) motive power
– via steam at larger scale (200-500 hp or higher)
– via producer gas at smaller scale (20-300 hp) space heating
– via pellet-fuelled stoves or central heating furnaces.
In each instance the fuel is in a solid pellet form easily stored and transported. In 2016, North America was rapidly developing the use of solid biofuels and Europe was importing, mainly for domestic heating, solid fuel pellets from Africa and South America at a rate exceeding 6 million tons per year.
Biomass fuel pellets can be economically produced from waste products of existing sawmills (sawdust and offcuts), rice mills (rice husks and rice straw), cane sugar mills (bagasse), coconut oil mills (coir and oilcake) and other agro-processing factories. Where such materials are not locally available at scale, it is profitable, in suitable locations, to grow special crops for direct conversion into biofuel pellets for local use or for export.
Such crops already adapted in other tropical countries, viz. Bamboo, Kenaf, Hemp, Miscanthus, Arundo donax etc, make economic use of poor soils in areas of uncertain rainfall. This class of plants can be cultivated to yield higher tons per acre per year of useful crop than many food crops which require fertilizer and irrigation. Parts of some of these plants are valuable for animal feed, but when they are farmed primarily for energy use, cultivation and processing are carbon neutral: no more carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere than the plants have withdrawn. On burning, less carbon dioxide is emitted than that which the origin plants have converted through photosynthesis.
Specialised biofuel crops are particularly suitable to flat, accessible lands close to the equator, such as the Intermediate and Rupununi Savannahs. With no deforestation, on degraded soils without expensive inputs, many square miles of unutilised land can be put into profitable use with the labour of local people now under-employed. This approach capitalises the comparative advantage derived from geographic location and topography. Consi-dering the carbon dividend, biofuel pellets made in these regions can be economically competitive with petroleum fuels from present or future refineries.
Growing biomass crops for energy is not a new idea. Many countries have over many years developed technologies and plant varieties that can be adopted today in Guyana. Planting material and methodology are easily available through international networks. The challenge is to get local people to take up ideas that are new to them, without treating labour impersonally as merely one factor in a traditionally managed industry.
Yours faithfully,
Gordon Forte
