With the current cost of production of sugar at Uitvlugt being unsustainable, government is seeking to determine the feasibility of establishing an ethanol plant there as part of diversification and sustainability plans, according to Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) CEO Sasenarine Singh.
In this regard, GuySuCo has advertised for expressions of interest “for a consultancy service to undertake a feasibility study for the setting up of a fuel ethanol plant.”
“It is just a study to decide on if ethanol can be made or not. It is not an investment,” Singh explained to the Stabroek News yesterday while pointing out that it is all part of the company’s strategic plan which is referenced in the Minister of Agriculture’s budget speech.
He said that acting on expert advice of an engineer at Uitvlugt that ethanol might be feasible, the study will be done to come to a decision. “At Uitvlugt [sugar production] is very inefficient. Its cost of production is (US) 50 cents a pound and because of that we have to move up the value chain to ethanol or something else. We can’t produce sugar at that price.”
In the formal Expression of Interest notice, GuySuCo states that there will be two pre-bid meetings held at the Uitvlugt Estate on March 16 and April 6 respectively.
All of the submissions must be in two parts – Technical and Financial.
Sources close to the sugar sector told this newspaper that Uitvlugt is the highest cost producer of all of the estates and while they remain against the decision by the APNU+AFC to shutter four estates when it took office, they believe that Uitvlugt and not Wales should have been on that list.
Former Director of Field Operations at GuySuCo, Anthony Vieira, has over the years lobbied for sugar to be transformed to ethanol saying that a study was needed to see if the diversification was a profitable endeavour.
“We have never sought to find out how feasible it would be to grind the cane and make alcohol directly from the juice, and not attempt to go through the very expensive process to manufacture sugar. We have never conducted an investigation like this. GuySuCo has continued to show us that they would not even consider such a thing,” he had written in 2017.
“In previous letters I have said that rough calculations show that twice the amount of earnings per acre can be obtained from grinding and producing fuel ethanol, than grinding and producing sugar. If my rough calculations are valid there is more than a little evidence to tell me that this is something which we must investigate further,” he had also posited.
His posture was echoed by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union, “Our Union, for its part, remains supportive of initiatives that will allow the sugar industry to not only strive but thrive. And, we are a strong proponent of sugar diversification and believe that the success of the industry is connected with a diversified product base. On the issue of ethanol, the GAWU is aware that this matter was considered several times in the past. We are aware that those studies had indicated that ethanol was not viable. The most recent work that we are aware of was done by the Sugar CoI [Commission of Inquiry]. The CoI pointed out whether ethanol was fermented from cane juice or from molasses it was simply not feasible vis-à-vis the cost of fossil fuels. In fact the CoI noted that ethanol would have only been a worthwhile measure if sugar prices had fallen to US$170 per tonne, currently sugar is being sold at US$320 per tonne,” General Secretary of GAWU Seepaul Narine had written to this newspaper.
“Moreover, that examination was conducted when the cost of a barrel of oil stood at US$45. At the time of preparing this response, oil prices hovered around US$35 per barrel further eroding the attractiveness of ethanol. Nonetheless, the GAWU does not wish to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater and maybe it is that Mr. Vieira is recognizing something that no one else is seeing. Therefore, an updated study may be useful since Mr. Vieira’s advocacy for the ethanol business is based on ethanol yields of 22 gallons per tonne cane. While we cannot confirm or dispute this quoted yield, there is no evidence to confirm that one tonne of GuySuCo’s cane will yield 22 gallons of ethanol. We therefore urge that the industry’s demonstration ethanol plant at Albion be used to study ethanol yields from GuySuCo’s cane to provide first hand data and associated cost/benefit,” he added.
Meanwhile, Audreyanna Thomas, who was the Senior Communications Officer of GuySuCo at the time, followed up saying that molasses would be the preferred raw material for ethanol production.
“The outstanding example of a sugarcane to ethanol industry is Brazil, which has developed an internal market for hydrated and fuel grade ethanol for its motor vehicle fleet, most of which are made in Brazil. Brazilian factories for the most part will produce both sugar and ethanol and can shift production volumes to either product depending on market prices or demand. The ethanol product can be either hydrated or anhydrous. Hydrated ethanol is 96% ethyl alcohol that is used in ethanol burning vehicles for which production is being phased out, while the flex fuel vehicles are becoming increasingly common. Anhydrous ethanol is mixed at up to 22% with gasoline in the common internal combustion engine. The higher ethanol contents are more common in Brazil where that mix is mandated. However, the accepted standard in most countries is for a 10% ethanol content that has the same octane rating as conventional gasoline but has lower CO2 emissions.”
Further, she added, “Ethanol is produced directly from sugarcane by fermentation of cane juice or from final molasses. The yield of ethanol from cane juice depends on the content of fermentable sugars. It has been noted that a number of ill-informed exponents of ethanol, tend to project the yield of ethanol from sugarcane as 80 to 85 litres per ton of sugarcane; however, this high yield is obtained in the centre-south of Brazil where conditions favour high accumulation of sugars and pol [sucrose content] in cane is in excess of 14%. Similar conditions will be found in Australia, and southern Africa. The sugarcane sugar contents in Guyana are similar to the north-east of Brazil where average pol in cane rarely exceeds 11-12%. The yield of ethanol from these canes will not exceed 70 litres per ton of cane. Ethanol production from molasses is of the order of 260 litres per ton.”
