John Myers Jr., Business Reporter
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller attracts the attention of Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (centre), and Robert Levy (right), president and CEO of the Jamaica Broilers Group following the official opening of Jamaica Broilers' ethanol plant in PortEsquivel, St. Catherine, yesterday. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer
Biofuel enthusiasts here are proposing the mass cultivation of castor beans - a shrub that already grows in the wild across the island - for the production of bio-diesel to be used as a fuel blend in the transport sector.
With Government moving to replace 20 per cent of the country's energy demands from indigenous and renewable sources, chairman of Petrojam Ethanol Ltd. (PEL), Karl James, has suggested that growing castor beans commercially for bio-diesel production could become a viable industry that would reduce the country's dependency on imported oil.
Mr. James said the bio-diesel produced from castor beans could be used as a fuel blend to replace at least three per cent of the 168 million gallons of diesel oil consumed in Jamaica annually.
Reliable
"The increasing price of oil makes it more urgent for us to develop a reliabl to some of the diesel oil we have to import," he argued. "The reduction in the use of diesel will contribute to improved environmental air quality as we reduce gas emission from transport."
The Government, with the assistance of the Brazilians, has already embarked on a massive drive to develop an ethanol industry from sugar cane. The state-owned refinery, Petrojam, has partnered with Brazil's Coimex Group to rehabilitate a 40-million gallon ethanol plant that has already generated revenues of US$120 million from exports to the United States since 2005.
Plans are also far advanced to introduce ethanol as a fuel blend in gasolene before year-end.
The PEL chairman recommended that this diesel blend be used mainly to power the island's transportation sector since it consumes 41 per cent of Jamaica's energy needs. The bauxite and alumina sector is second with 35 per cent, and electricity generation third with 19 per cent.
Oil cost rising
Last year, more than US$1.7 million was spent to import oil for the country's energy needs and that figure is projected to reach more than US$2 billion this year, with the cost of oil continuously rising on the world market and the country's energy needs growing at about five per cent each year.
"The reduction of just two per cent of diesel imports will help in the country's balance of payment and increase agricultural output," Mr. James said while making a presentation at a two-day biofuel seminar organised by the Brazilian Embassy and the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston, on Wednesday.
It is not known how many castor bean plants grow wildly in Jamaica at this time but he noted "that large areas of rural Jamaica could be quickly transformed into attractive economic zones where independent small land owners are engaged in the production of an agricultural good for which there is a ready market at a price that should provide satisfactory return for their efforts."
Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell has endorsed the idea, noting that "the castor bean has a high oil content and is regarded as a natural agri-product for the production of bio-diesel".
Speaking at the same function, Minister Paulwell pointed out that the "plant is low maintenance, it grows on marginal lands, requires low rainfall and can withstand long periods of drought".
Furthermore, he said when compared with other crops such as corn and sugar cane, castor bean is the best option for bio-diesel production as it did not compete with food crops for arable land space.
Said Minister Paulwell: "The key advantages to the economy from the use of locally produced agri-energy products will be to reduce dependency on imported petroleum products; financial benefit to the economy from reduced demand for foreign exchange necessary to purchase petroleum products and increased employment in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors."
In addition, he emphasised that the country has the added benefit of earning carbon credits for the significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from producing biofuels.
However, Mr. James cautioned that while the initiative should be pursued vigorously, a clear policy should first be developed by the Energy Ministry with the involvement of the Ministries of Agriculture, Development, Finance and Planning and Labour and Social Security; and other related agencies. He recommended the formation of an inter-ministerial committee of Cabinet to drive the programme.
He said service station operators, fuel distributors, haulage contractors should also be involved in the process.
In the meantime more research needs to be done to determine the appropriate variety of castor bean to plant in order to maximise yield and production, as well as, the required land space needed to grow the quantity necessary to produce the recommended volume of bio-diesel.
There are research documents produced by the Scientific Research Council (SRC) as far back as the 1970s on the feasibility of growing the crop commercially here. One such document produced in 1978 pointed to the growing of five trial plots of varying sizes in Lawrencefield, Amity Hall, Elem, Bodles and Denbigh Kraal.
Another research document produced by the SRC in 1983 report varying yields of the different hybrid varieties on trial. The document also pointed to some plants developing fungus in high humidity areas, which it emphasised might be expensive to control.
As it relates to the viability of castor bean plants that grow wildly across the island, the research said they had had no commercial potential as the oil content varied considerably and the tendency of the bean to shatter on maturity made it difficult to harvest.
