The lead man on a project which aims to produce ethanol from sweet sorghum, Alain Salleras, Executive Director of Global Biofuels Ltd., along with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., (NNPC) and India’s Praj Industries, are in discussions to squash any questions on the growing concern over the alleged impact of biofuels on agriculture.
“Contrary to manioc, sorghum, of which Nigeria is the world’s leading producer, has no impact on food supply,” Salleras emphasized.
Sorghum requires less than one quarter of the water needed to grow sugar cane, it produces two to three harvests a year, you get far more ethanol per hectare under cultivation, and there is no wastage.
“To make the ethanol we only take the stalks, which are rich in sugar. The grains go for food and the rest for animal fodder,” says Salleras. Even the fibrous residue from the crushed stalks, known as “bagasse,” is recycled. The biomass is boiled to produce steam to make electricity.
When a full 10,000 hectares of sweet sorghum is ready for harvest, Salleras expects an estimated production of 240,000 liters of ethanol. In three to five years’ time, Salleras says the project aims to produce 5% of Nigeria’s total consumption — 1.5million liters a day.
Global Biofuels says that through its plan to construct seven ethanol refineries in various parts of the country, a significant number of jobs will be generated for Nigerians. The company estimates that each refinery/feed plant will jointly employ 8,000 and create an additional 40 000 indirect jobs.
NNPC has agreed to purchase Global Biofuels’ entire output for use to power automobiles, breweries, and pharmaceutical plants. NNPC’s Renewable Energy Division, aims to have a thriving national biofuels industry up and running by the middle of 2012.