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| Sunday, 13 January 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Meeting our fuel needs through biomass economy by P.G. Joseph/Dr. Ray Wijayawardena It is important to compare the foreign exchange Sri Lanka has to spend importing fossil fuels with the net foreign exchange earned from our tea, rubber and coconut exports. A forecast into near future indicates that fuel import cost will exceed the plantation earnings by year 2004. The only hope of countering such a bleak situation lies in the promise of biomass economy. But we must remember that this is not a quick fix solution: it is a long term solution. Fuelwood farming using SRC (Short Rotation Coppicing) species had been undertaken by our Universities and researchers and found to be very promising. Coppicing refers to the ability of a tree to throw out a profusion of branches when loped. Suitable land for fuel wood plantations are readily available in the form of Haena and Scrubland. The total extent available is estimated to be around 1,700,000 hectares. Most SRC species are found to nitrogen fixing and eliminate the need to apply large quantities of fertilizer. Planting of SRC species in some model plantations had given some encouraging results. First harvest can be done in 12 months period, and the harvesting can take place in 6 months cycle from there onwards. Harvested branches is sun dried, bundled and will be sent to power station where it will be burnt under controlled conditions. The heat generated will be either used to turn a steam turbine or combustion will be used to generate a combustible gas to run an engine. Either of the devices will turn an electric generator to produce electrical power. An energy plantation supplemented with other food crops, high value timber, animal husbandry and related agricultural activity can absorb the entire community living below the poverty line in to the economic mainstream. It will make a significant contribution to agriculture sector, dairy production sector as well as to the general poverty alleviation initiative. The more visible results from a 500,000 hectare plantation are summarised below. Considering just... 0.5 million (500,000) hectares - a third of the existing 1.7 million hectares of scrub and haena lands in Sri Lanka; - would (based on a modest yield of 20 tonnes/ha./yr) provide..... 10 million (10,000,000) tons of fuel-wood annually, on a sustained basis to produce... 10,000 Gwh of domestically sourced electricity annually (nearly twice the hydropower-potential of the country) from about 1,200 MW of small (1 to 20 MW) thermal (wood-fuelled) power stations located throughout the country, and which would otherwise cost Sri Lanka... Rs. 15 billion (Rs. 15,000,000,000) in foreign exchange to import (polluting) fossil fuel (oil, coal, gas, etc..) in order to produce the equivalent amount of thermal energy, while employing... 150,000 rural families (representing 1/20th this country's population) each family managing 3 hectares of fuel-wood plantation, and earning about... Rs. 7,500 per month (about Rs. 90,000 p.a.) on a continuous basis, even at the present delivered price of about Rs. 1,000 per tonne, and providing more than a..... Nine-times increase in forest-plantation cover of Sri Lanka to absorb far more than any likely CO2 emissions. Thus becoming Environmentally the most benign of all thermal generating systems, each energy plantation producing usable fuel-wood within Two Years of planting to the newer techniques of high-density SRC forestry. For more details contact BARNS/promotions 699892/074-722307 |
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