Fossil fuels have been accorded great importance in our everyday lives. However, an impending fuel crisis is apparent, often associated with their uneven distribution and higher extraction rate. Fossil fuels have a sluggish nature of formation and take centuries to form. Consequently, fossil fuels are being depleted, which has often been the implicit root of oil price hikes, but more importantly, this shortage is causing conflicts, political confrontations and a fuel-war between countries. It calls for an alternative solution to securing fuel supply and averting a global fuel crisis in a sustainable manner.
Despite the wide use of renewable sources of energy as substitutes for non-renewable fossil fuels, a well accepted, economical and environmentally sound alternative is yet to be found. Use of bio-fuels is a relatively handy and cheaper alternative to fossil fuels. This is particularly true for the third world countries which are yet to identify fossil fuel mines or are facing an acute fuel crisis owing to a less developed economy.
Bio-fuels are the energy source derived from biomass conversion or breakdown of organic matter. The most common bio-fuels—ethanol and biodiesel—are increasingly being used as gasoline additives. Efforts to produce ethanol and bio-diesel are picking up among developed countries. The United States and Brazil have adopted bio-fuels as a reliable alternative to fossil fuels since the last few decades. A collaborative work started in 2007 by establishing an association—the Brazil-US Bio-fuels Cooperation—to develop, facilitate and extend clean and sustainable energy production.
The US and Brazil account for about 87.8 percent of global bio-fuels production. The European Union, world’s’ largest biodiesel producer (53 percent share), relies on rapeseed, soy and sunflower seeds to produce bio-diesel. Brazil has been producing ethanol from sugarcane, while Americans have carried out ethanol production using corn, soybean and switch-grass. According to the United States Department of Energy (USDOE), the country accounted for 13.2 billion gallon of ethanol production in 2010. The total ethanol production in Brazil was 21.1 billion gallon in 2011, i.e. 24.9 percent of world’s ethanol production.
There is a growing interest among many countries to uncover the potential and positive effect of bio-fuels production. Greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane and water vapor, emitted due to fossil fuel combustion, cause the greenhouse effect. Bio-fuels crops, meanwhile, have been productive in carbon fixation or soil carbon sequestration to reduce greenhouse gases. A paper by Chuck Schumer and his co-workers published in PNAS in 2008 indicates that switch-grass derived ethanol can potentially reduce greenhouse gases emission by about 94 percent compared to gasoline. Bio-fuels can be extracted from locally available resources or plant materials like algae, corn, soy, sugarcane, jatropha, rapeseed, animal fats and cellulose.
Bio-fuels have emerged as flexible fuels and can be mixed with other fuels easily. Hochman and his co-workers in 2010 estimated that the introduction of bio-fuels can reduce fuel price by 1.07 to 1.10 percent. However, there is a slight negative implication as well. Bio-fuels production needs relatively more land, thereby reducing land for agriculture and increasing food prices, and their production could result in deforestation and land-use changes affecting biodiversity and hydrological cycles.
For a country like Nepal that is reeling under acute shortage of petroleum products and lacking sources of fossil fuel, bio-fuels like ethanol can be viable option to alleviate fuel crisis.
Further, bio-fuels production may require higher investment, use more water and nitrogenous fertilizers, and sometimes may involve a modification to vehicles engines.
Nepal, with an acute shortage of petroleum products, critically lacks sources of fossil fuel or these sources are yet to be explored. Besides, the country doesn’t have any oil refinery. There is an obligation to spend billions of rupees every year to import fuel from neighboring countries. According to the Nepal Oil Corporation, petroleum products account for 11 percent of total energy consumed in Nepal. Despite 14, 000 barrels of total oil import every day, the government has failed to provide easy access to and smooth supply of fuels. At this juncture, bio-fuels like ethanol are a viable option to dissipate the fuel crisis, and according to estimates, can help reduce up to 14 percent of gasoline import.
Some private companies like Everest Biodiesel, Crystal Bio-energy and Watabaran have been working on bio-fuels production in Nepal. The first two are working on bio-diesel production from the seed of jatropha. Jatropha has been recognized as a potential source of biodiesel. The seeds of jatropha plant contain about 35 percent oil and can be used to extract high quality biodiesel. However, efforts from merely the private sector can hardly be enough.
There are a gamut of opportunities to extract bio-fuels from cellulosic biomass of Napier grass, khar grass and kash—abundantly present in semi tropical lower mountains and tropical southern plain regions of Nepal. Perennial bio-energy crops ought to be cultivated in barren lands of high and middle mountains of Nepal for bio-fuel production. Feasibility studies and research activities must be carried out across the country for a sustainable bio-energy crops production, without compromising on food security and biodiversity. It is extremely important to now give priority to bio-fuels industries and formulate policies at the national level. This will ultimately help utilize fallow land, generate employment opportunities and reduce the fossil fuel import.
Adhikari is conducting a research in genetics of bio-energy crops at the Oklahoma State University, USA. Acharya writes on climate change issues
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