A Financial Times survey of 26 September 1995 found that the present energy situation in many Asian countries can be encapsulated in the sentence "Asia's thirst for power is to be unquenchable". Since it appears probable that this situation will continue for many years, extra sources of energy will be needed to meet the growing energy demands of different economic sectors. This means that new fuels will need to be developed considerably, particularly those that are environmentally friendly and preferably that are available locally.
Several technical solutions exist for producing liquid fuels from agricultural and forest biomass. These fuels are commonly denominated biofuels. Some of these biofuels can substitute liquid fuels such as gasoline and diesel used for engines. The use of these novel technologies will depend, to a large extent, on international oil prices, national energy policies and specific local conditions. However, new technologies are being developed in R&D institutes in several European countries and in the United States in order to reduce production costs.
The massive use of biofuels will reduce the quantity of imported oil; utilize locally available sources of energy; alleviate environmental concern at the local and regional levels; utilize marginal lands for plantations (trees and crops) for energy purposes; and create new jobs and income for rural populations.
Transesterified vegetable and animal oils, commonly denominated biodiesel or methyl esters, correspond to a product with physicochemical properties and performances similar to those of diesel derived from fossil oils. Biodiesel can substitute diesel oil either totally or partially.
R&D activities have concentrated mainly on soybean (in the United States) and rape seed (Europe). In Europe, the use of biodiesel is an answer to surpluses of agricultural production, but high production costs remain the major constraint to wider utilization. The main tools to promote the use of biodiesel are tariffs to discourage the use of fossil fuels and subsidies for biodiesel production.
In some other countries, such as Brazil, Mali and Thailand, other local vegetable oils are used, such as babaçu, palm oil and curcas oil. For example, engines are being driven successfully with curcas oil in Mali. Curcas oil is produced from the seeds of jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.), which yield up to 50 percent of their weight in oil. Jatropha has wide environmental tolerance and can be cultivated in arid and semi-arid lands with relatively rapid growth and easy propagation. Mali, Brazil, India and other Asian countries have large stocks of jatropha.
Unfortunately the production of biodiesel is not perceived as economically feasible because of the high costs involved. However, under specific conditions - relatively good productivity, wasteland availability and low labour cost - biodiesel based on curcas oil can represent a viable alternative to liquid fuel.
Tests have also indicated that jatropha can be considered a good raw material not only for oil, but also for medicines, pesticides and soap production (black soap).
The potential benefits for local communities are immense, particularly those located in remote areas where access to conventional sources of energy is not always possible and affordable.
In the follow-up to UNCED in Rio in 1992, methodology sheets for indicators of sustainability have been developed by different technical units of FAO on Chapters 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 17 of Agenda 21. Two indicators on wood-based energy and energy have been proposed for Chapter 11, "Combating deforestation" - indicator: wood as a percentage of energy consumption; definition: the proportion of wood used in a given region for its energy consumption at a given reference year.
Chapter 12, "Combating desertification and drought" - indicator: fuelwood consumption per caput. Definition: volume of ligneous material for household and industrial energy for cooking, heating and lighting, whether charcoal or wood; this volume is calculated on the basis of yearly individual consumption.
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M.A. Trossero,Myanmar is a beautiful country on the Bay of Bengal, linking South and Southeast Asia. The country is large and relatively empty compared with its neighbours - it covers 670 000 km² and has a population estimated in excess of 43 million. It is a rural country with less than 10 percent of the population living in the towns. This is reflected in a dependency on fuel energy from fuelwood. Natural tree cover has provided more than 95 percent of annual energy needs in recent years, which has resulted in extensive overexploitation of forests, in the order of 30 million tonnes per year.
In an effort to redress environmental degradation, the state is encouraging reforestation programmes and the use of fuel-efficient technologies and equipment for home and industrial use. The private sector has also made considerable efforts.
The Chairman and Chief Executive of the SAN SAN Industrial Cooperative Ltd of Yangon - U Tin Win - has been an exponent of "appropriate technologies" for all of his working life. This has been increasingly reflected in the approach of the cooperative to the range of locally made power/heat energy equipment they have available as well as their approach towards the provision of information. Developed during 1994 and placed in domestic markets in 1995 (designated the "Year of substitution use of fuelwood" in Myanmar), the SAN SAN briquettor has been designed to produce an "alternative" fuel, using compressed rice husks.
The briquettor uses external heat (from a small integral furnace) and the pressure of a screw in a cylinder to fuse the separate rice husks through an extruder, in order to produce hollow cylindrical briquettes 50 mm in diameter and 350 mm long. According to the cooperative, natural adhesives in the husk are released at 150°C and act as binding materials. The power driving the screw is provided by a 13 kW diesel engine. The output of the machine is of the order of 1 tonne/day.
At the beginning of 1995, the cost of the machine was US$1 500 and the cooperative had recorded more than 50 sold. As a means of earning a livelihood, the individual briquettes were selling in urban markets for US$0.15 each.
SAN SAN has taken the design further in order to exploit the large quantity of agricultural residues that remain underused, and which cannot easily be incorporated into the soil. An alternative briquetting machine has been designed to prototype stage. Similar in principle to the rice husk machine, it uses a cold forming process (it does not have a furnace) and a mixture of rice husk ash and adhesive to bind the materials into a briquette under pressure from the screw. Agroresidue briquettes were selling for US$0.13 each.
To encourage and promote the use of alternative energies and the designs that have been developed by the cooperative, U Tin Win has published a text-book containing copies of his technical drawings, with sufficient information to enable a competent technician to manufacture the machines.
It is necessary to check the availability of the text-book and/or drawings from the cooperative. It may also be necessary to learn Burmese to read the text; the drawings and measurements, however, are clear.
(Contributed by:
Peter Steele,For more information, please contact
U Tin Win at the SAN SAN Industrial Cooperative Ltd,The congress was organized by "Proleña", an NGO created within the framework of the FAO Latin America Technical Cooperative Network on Dendroenergy to act as a national coordinator on wood and biomass energy. The meeting was attended by many important government and non-governmental participants. The main aim of the congress was to discuss the basic problems, constraints and barriers affecting the use of wood as fuel in a sustainable manner not only for traditional use but also for modern energy, mainly electricity. At the closing of the congress, an official declaration was made supporting the launching of a national strategy for the use of wood as a source of energy in a more sustainable manner.
For more information, please contact Proleña, Tel./Fax: +504-32-0639.
The Regional Wood Energy Development Programme in Asia (GCP/RAS/154/NET), in cooperation with the Asian and Pacific Development Centre-Asian and Pacific Energy Planning Network (APDC-APENPLAN), organized the following courses: "Regional training seminar on integrating wood energy in decentralized energy planning" and "Training course on data collection, assessment and analysis for wood energy planning" in Kuala Lumpur, from 7 to 23 November 1995.
These training activities were aimed at specialists involved in the planning and assessment of programmes and projects, and/or the analysis and formulation of strategies and policies for the supply and use of wood energy. There is a clear need to increase awareness among these specialists of the feasibility and desirability of broad-based wood energy development programmes and strategies.
This regional training programme is the first of five such training programmes to be organized by RWEDP during the coming five years. These regional training programmes will, moreover, be complemented by national-level workshops in member countries. RWEDP will consequently provide technical and financial support to a national workshop for ten of its member countries in the next five years.
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Dr W. Hulscher,The Regional Wood Energy Development Programme in Asia (RWEDP), with the cooperation of the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM), organized a four-day regional expert consultation on "Selection criteria and priority rating for assistance to traditional biomass energy using industries", in Penang, Malaysia from 15 to 18 January 1996.
The main objective of the expert consultation was to provide policy support by drawing up a set of criteria to be used for: the identification and selection of five traditional biomass energy-using industries; and the subsequent priority rating. These criteria will then be used effectively to provide support and assistance to biomass energy-using industries in member countries.
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Dr W. Hulscher,The intention of the seminar is to provide a forum for presentation and discussion of the following topics: regional policy and legislation; impact of the energy sector on the environment; international cooperation and financing; rational use; renewable sources of energy and demand side management; technologies and their applications in the region; power auditing in industrial and commercial sectors; and assessment of rational use of energy and demand side management projects.
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Catalina Ramírez,ITABIA, the Italian Biomass Association, has established a 12-month scholarship to European Union citizens to carry out research on biomass.
The scholarship is funded as an additional initiative among ITABIA activities aimed at promoting the production and development of animal and vegetable biomass.
For more information, please contact
ITABIA,