Bio-based Petrochemicals

There is a lot of talk about the recent oil find by Tullow Oil PLC in Turkana region of Kenya. What about the bio-based petrochemical efforts in Kenya? Brazil has extensively diversified its fuel economy by incorporating ethanol from sugarcane in addition to fossil fuels.

Here is the objective:-  not to aim to replace fossil fuels at once but rather to suppliment it. Locally developed/adapted solutions are the ones that will work the best for the long term. Brazil's biofuel economy works because of the mass scale of sugarcane production that was adapted for a unique local opportunity. US has struggled to mimic this with corn-based ethanol .... which doesn't workout economically so that industry is only surviving due to the multitude of government subsidies.

What is the state of biofuel development in Kenya?  The present production efficiency of sugarcane is 14 tons of cane to produce 1 ton of sugar; i got this info from my Dad who has a sugarcane farm in western Kenya. The remaining 13 tons can be used to make biofuels through either the gasification route or catalytic chemical route (see biofuel basics). I am most hopeful about sugarcane but here are other biofuel developments/investments recently announced:

• Omnicane investing $180 million sugar production facility that would include 18 MW power plant and 30,000 litre ethanol plant. (reuters)
• Western Biofuel Company (WEBCO) will be building a $150 million biofuel facility in western Kenya. Investor funds for this veture are being sourced from UK, China and Qatar. (Africa Review)
• Standard Bank is buying 313,000 carbon credits from Kenyan biomass producer Karan Biofuels (Standard Bank news media)

There is some active research at Kenyan universities on biofuels e.g. different oil algae research studies at Univeristy of Nairobi and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (freshwater algae); studies on  Biofuel Cropping Systems at Egerton University and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, etc ..

Good to hear about oil discovery but let's have a balanced approach to fuel economy!