Alternative sources of fuel: The need of the hour

We all know that motor vehicles - cars, buses, lorries, trucks and three-wheelers run on petrol or diesel. You'll be surprised to read that the King of Thailand has a car that runs on palm oil. Today, many petrol stations in Bangkok (Thailand's capital) sell gasohol, gasoline mixed with ethanol. Gasoline is another name for petrol.

Ethanol is distilled from high starch-containing crops like manioc or maize, from crops with a high sugar content like sugar cane and sweet corn, and from oil-bearing nuts like palm oil nuts, coconuts, and seeds like rape(a plant grown as food for sheep and for its seeds).

Thailand is not the only country running cars on petrol mixed with palm oil or other types of vegetable oil. Many countries in South and East Asia are turning to plants for fuel, because the price of petroleum (un-refined oil) is rising in the world market. This results in the increase of bus fares and transport charges, causing hardships to the people in countries that import oil.

Then, there is the ever-increasing number of car-users. This increases the demand for petrol and diesel. These fuels are needed not only for running vehicles. Factories use diesel for their generators, to produce electricity to run machines.

Importing petroleum at a price as high as 70 US dollars per barrel is a big drain on the resources of many countries. So, finding other sources of energy is a 'MUST'.

There is a saying, 'Necessity is the mother of invention'. The present search for, and projects under way to produce alternatives to petroleum proves the truth of this saying.

Petroleum is not a renewable source of energy. Research has shown that the world's oil-wells will run dry in 20 or 30 years at the rate oil is extracted and used now. The oil palm and sugar cane are the two crops most used to produce alternatives to fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels are oil and coal found below the earth's surface. Malayasia and Indonesia are the largest producers of palm oil. India has found a new source of ethanol - the jatropa plant, which grows in many parts of the country. One sees this bush growing alongside the railway lines. The fruits of the jatropa, when crushed, produce a yellow oil that is refined and mixed with diesel.

The Indian government says dozens of buses and trucks are run on diesel mixed with jatropa oil.

Even the USA, Canada and Europe are using petrol and diesel blended with a small percentage of vegetable oils. In Europe, oil from rape seeds is mixed with diesel to form what is called bio-diesel. In the US, ethanol is distilled from corn.

In Brazil, ethanol extracted from sugar cane is blended with petrol and used to run cars. These 'home-made' fuels can be used in automobiles without any engine modifications.

In the Philippines, bio-diesel is made by adding coconut oil to diesel. In the small Pacific Ocean island of Vanautu, generators are run on diesel mixed with five per cent coconut oil.

Australia and India use sugar cane or molasses to produce ethanol, which is mixed with petrol to run cars.

Why don't we do the same when we have the raw-material to produce ethanol?

About three years ago, the Chairman of the Sugar Research Institute wrote in a newspaper article that "around eight million litres of alcohol are produced annually at Pelwatte and Sevanagala sugar factories. This alcohol can be blended with petrol and used at least in three-wheelers and motorcycles. This would reduce our fuel consumption and thereby, the expenditure on fuel imports".

A more recent article by another writer was captioned "Manioc (Cassava) - the solution to the fuel crisis in Sri Lanka".

Manioc can be grown anywhere in Sri Lanka and needs no special care. Manioc doesn't grow in South Korea; so the country has leased 50,000 hectares of land in Papua New Guinea to grow manioc. When the manioc is harvested, it is shipped to South Korea, where it is processed and ethanol is distilled.

If we develop this technology, we can kill two birds with one stone. Large-scale cultivation of manioc will help reduce rural poverty as well as cut down the expenditure on oil imports.

Sumana Saparamadu