Africa Power Initiative (API) has announced that its project, unique to Africa in that it fully integrates the local community, is in the advanced stages of producing 60,000 liters a day from jatropha and other oil seeds which will boost Uganda’s biodiesel potential.
The Karamoja-located farm, created by API in partnership with American and local investors, employs over 500 people on 2,000 acres of land.
Jatropha seeds are important to biodiesel production as a feedstock, yielding more than four times as much fuel per hectare than soy bean and 10 times more than maize.
With the success of the Karamoja area, foreign investors have begun taking notice. Last week representatives from top local and foreign government officials and investors from the Gulf States toured the project.
API’s research department in Kampala is in the advanced stages of using the residue to process biomass for electricity, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, and industrial chemicals.
In addition, the group has designed an energy-saving stove which uses brickets made from the husks from all the farm’s weeds and waste, which burn without producing smoke, are three times cheaper, and burn three times faster than charcoal.