Biofuel Policy Perspectives - Presentation at 2G Biofuels Workshop, Kemausuor

8/3/2019 Biofuel Policy Perspectives - Presentation at 2G Biofuels Workshop, Kemausuor

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Francis Kemausuor

The Energy Center

KNUST, Kumasi


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Biofuels production began in response to aneed to boost socio-economic development,improve agriculture in particular or to respondto an oil shock.

In the EU, biofuels were introduced to preventthe decline of rural areas and respond toincreasing levels of energy demand

In the Brazil and the US, it was due to the oilcrisis of the 1970s and then later in the US, toaddress a crisis in the corn industry.


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In Ghana today:

We are net importers of oil

Fuels costs are high and unpredictable

Need to improve agricultural productivity

Need for rural economic development

Need to address climate related challenges


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Many players involved Some are vulnerable and

must be protected

The big players if leftunguarded might bully theirway through

Policies are necessary

because production of somefeedstocks is large scale anddedicated to biofuels, ratherthan crops already inproduction.


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Address food security issues;

Promote research;

Churn out programmes to

support smallholderinvolvement;

Strengthen environmental

policies to prevent damage fromtoxic waste and large volumes ofby-products that may have littleeconomic value.


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Tariff policies

Incentives

Tax rebates if necessary

Processing plants

Chemicals, solvents, etc. (not produced in country)

Production targets

Mandates on blending

Perhaps a Biofuels Agency

Land use maps

Standards

Feasibility studies

Support research


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Governments policy directivesregarding:

Feedstock choices

Scale of production Cropping patterns

National targets and roadmap

Standards, regulatory issues


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Protection of existing

farm lands

Opportunities forfeedstock production /

guaranteed prices


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Second generations (2G) biofuels still in pilot

phase and expensive

Expansion of first generation biofuels projects

and preparing ground for 2G biofuels National / regional timetable to adopt and

phase in 2G biofuels will drive research

Government support critical at the research

stage to offer motivation to researchers


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In the US Energy Independence and SecurityAct of 2007, 9.0 billion gallons of renewable

fuel needed in 2008 and rises to 36 billion

gallons by 2022. Of the latter total, 21 billion

gallons is required to be obtained from

cellulosic ethanol and other advanced biofuels

The EU Directive on the promotion of the use ofenergy from renewable sources cautiously

accentuate commercial availability of second

generation biofuels.


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Republic of South Africa

Under production plans: More efficient technologiesi.e. second-generation technologies, which are not dependenton food crops, are being developed and South Africa shouldkeep abreast of these developments by investing in research

and development.

Under Future Research and Development: Theresearch focus areas will include the investigation of alternativefeedstock, development of energy crops (i.e. drought tolerance,

high yield per ha, energy efficiency etc.) and improvement ofknown technologies whilst further developing, supporting andpiloting the second generation technologies.

Others countries glance over it


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To substitute national petroleum fuelsconsumption with biofuel by 10% by 2020 and20% by 2030.

To achieve the targets would require strategiesfocusing on the following actions:

Encouraging the commercial scale production ofbiofuel feedstock;

Creating demand for biofuel; and

Sustaining supply of biofuel.


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On land, pollution balance: Recent

developments with cellulosic ethanol production

and commercialisation may allay some of these

concerns.

On feedstock: Promote the use of waste cooking

fats and oil as biofuelfeedstock.

On R&D: The conduct of R&D and other relatedactivities for the development of biofuel, especially

next generation biofuels, would require substantial

amount of funds to implement.


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Even at high oil prices, 2G biofuels will probably not

become fully commercial nor enter the market for severalyears to come without significant additional governmentsupport;

Most biofuel policies in Africa mention 2G biofuels but do

not have clear cut mandates;

Ghanas draft bioenergy policy document considerssecond generation biofuels to some extent. More actionneeded and researchers should be taking advantage;

In the interim, first generation biofuels, and relatedissues, should be promoted with full force andsupported by an equal measure of research.


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Documents

Biofuel Policy Perspectives - Presentation at 2G Biofuels Workshop, Kemausuor