Though economic amounts of crude oil are now found in Ghana, the prospects of pursuing other sources of fuel, especially biofuels should also be intensified with immense momentum.

Biofuels (also known as agrofuel), particularly bioethanol and biodiesels have the flexibility of being blended with petrol (gasoline) and diesel.

In developed countries considerable amounts of biofuels are blended with fossil fuels without modifications to the engines which use them as sources of energy.

The objective is to reduce the over-dependence on crude oil, save the dwindling crude oil reserves, alleviate the environmental pollution associated with these fossil fuels and increase the dependency on agrobased products which are renewable.

Biofuels are produced from food and non-food sources and possess the advantages of being renewable, biodegradable, low or no toxicity, easy to produce, "green" and mixable with fossil fuels.

Bioethanol is produced from food sources such as corn, sugarcane, potatoes, cassava, pineapple; rice, millet, sorghum, wheat, soybean and tomatoes, while non-food sources include straws from corn, rice, wheat, millet and sorghum.

Biodiesels, on the other hand, could be produced from animal fats or vegetable oils, including sources from peanuts, palm, palm kernel, soybean, coconut and sunflower, which are abundant in Ghana.

In Ghana, bioethanols from food sources are well known and have been demonstrated through the production of the local gin, ‘akpeteshie’ and various beers, including pito.

The drawback is the variety of raw materials and purification processes for the fuel grade and its optimisation. Locally, it appears that further distillation could achieve this quality, however limited and expensive.

On the other hand, bioethanol from non-food sources and biodiesels are not very popular in Ghana. Economic sources are also produced through processes similar to the food source.

Economic amounts of biodiesels are produced from vegetable oils and alcohol (e.g. ethanol) with glycerine as the attractive by-product.

Ghanaian farmers are hit with the dilemma of post-harvest storage, since considerable amount of their harvest will not make it to the market, because of poor transportation systems and demand. Most of these harvests are often rendered as waste and affect the size of farms cultivated each year.

The drive for bioethanol production will tend to save harvesters from the headache of storing excess food, promote bigger farmlands, reduce unemployment, help build rural economies and improve on farm income.

In the production of fuel grade ethanol from local gin and beer production process, distillation is the most thought of process. However, the process is flawed by a constant boiling mixture azeotrope which must be broken.

Moreover, the fermentation process is inhibited as the ethanol concentration in the broth is very low. It appears that membrane processes (especially membrane bioreactor), coupled with other purification processes, could provide some solutions to these flaws as well as optimise the process.

Ghana has the potential of biofuels production and requires a drive from the government, public and private sector initiatives to support economic production and utilisation of biofuel as fossil fuel additives.

If adequate quantities of biofuel are produced locally to blend with fossil fuel, the following benefits will be achieved:

Strengthening the energy securities, creating new businesses in both rural and urban communities, boosting of production in the agriculture industry, reducing unemployment, lowering population drifts (rural to urban), lowering agro waste as well as reducing environmental pollution from fossil fuel.

Even if the pursuit of biodiesels production appears sophisticated at present, bioethanol could be pursued in Ghana with success.

It is believed that agriculture can even be more sustainable if further comprehensive and extensive research is conducted in this area of the agro industry to confirm the feasibility and economic viability of this concept.

Data on similar research and industrial production systems might be available locally and externally.

It is, therefore, hoped that Ghana will take advantage of this opportunity to produce clean energy, become energy sufficient and be economically prosperous.


Source: Alexander Anim-Mensah/Daily Graphic