Let us grow our energy sources

by Patali Champika RANAWAKA

On June 6, 2009 the World Environmental Day, I was fortunate to participate in an open forum at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute to discuss the future of the renewable energy prospects of Sri Lanka.

It was noted that the opinions voiced by many experts at the forum were of much value, to all those who were present. However, it cannot be overemphasized that the presentation of Dr. Ray Wijewardana on the relevant subject was unique and much inspirational.

He said, “Look, we have enough sunshine, more than enough rain and water. Just as the way we grow our food we should grow our energy. All what is constructed by human beings are called culture. However, of all the cultures so created by human beings up to date, agriculture is the most important”. The sound of these words even now rings in my ears as “grow our food, grow our energy”.

Being inspired by this fascinated observation, I was determined to promote the slogan emphasizing the importance of biomass as our main alternative energy source. Subsequently, having listened to persons like the Chairman of Biomass Association Parakrama and also going deeper into the relevant subject, I was convinced that, just as the way we grow our food, we could grow our energy, fertiliser and fodder, if we develop and maintain our lands in a more efficient and productive manner.

Plants are grown using sunlight, water and soil through a process called photosynthesis and the carbon contained in plants so grown are capable of producing energy. This clearly proves the fact that energy which is sustainable can also be grown.

However, one characteristic in biomass energy is that it is not generated from freely available sources like wind, solar or hydro. Although, biomass energy is a cyclic process, by way of growing plants, it needs the involvement of humankind for its final productivity.

The biomass energy could be produced by a variety of material forms, like trees and forest waste, food crops (like corn and sugar cane), energy crops (like switch grass, Gliricidia, Jathropha etc.) and from agricultural, municipal and industrial wastes etc., These biomass energies could be used as primary thermal energies or they could be used to produce electricity and liquid fuel for transportation.

According to the Sri Lankan energy balance sheet (2007), the share of biomass in primary energy usage was nearly 48% whereas the share of petroleum was 43%. If not for biomass, our petroleum bill could have been doubled and our foreign reserves could not have been sufficient to meet our energy needs. Therefore, it is clear that our present day economic development is based on biomass.

The modern development is made possible due to the enormous energy the fossil fuel produces to sustain the economic growth. The problems associated with biomass is obvious. Its quantitative production of energy may not always be proportionate to its production efficiency.

In thermodynamic jargon, entropy of biomass is very low, when it is compared with that of other sources. However, in Sri Lankan context, biomass energies possess many advantages over fossil fuels and let us examine a few of them.

The first fact is that, as fossil fuels are imported, it requires foreign exchange. The energy security therefore is very low, and as a result, our economy is vulnerable to oil shocks. In contrast, biomass energy could be produced locally with no foreign exchange involvement and therefore, the energy security and self-sustenance of our energy needs are guaranteed.

The second fact is that fossil fuels are limited and is a scarce resource which creates serious environmental ill-effects like global warming. In contrast, biomass could be regenerated and it could absorb what is being released in burning and therefore it is environmentally friendly.

The third fact is that production of fossil fuel needs extensive infrastructure facilities like mining, refining, storage, transportation and distribution networks. As biomass is locally produced, it needs no extensive infrastructure for its production, storage or transportation.

The fourth fact is that fossil fuels actually limits employment generation opportunities. It is limited to plant operational activities and it tends to create alienation problems in the society.

However, in contrast, biomass could generate significant employment opportunities with no social problems of alienation.

The fifth fact is that fossil fuels create much less spin off benefits like producing chemicals which are ultimately harmful to the environment.

On the other hand biomass could create multitude of spin off benefits such as organic fertiliser, livestocks fodder development, soil conservation, improvement of water conservation, enhancement of canopy level thus creating carbon neutrality and alleviating poverty through rural development.

If we consider the biomass availability of Sri Lanka, we could see that 37% of it is coming from coconut plantations.

The bio degradable waste from local authorities could contribute 28% of the total biomass while biomass from home gardens could contribute 18%, and sugar bagasse, rice husks from commercial mills could contribute 8.3% and 6.2% . The availability of rice straw and other possible sources have not yet been quantified.

If we consider the availability of land we would see that at least 20% of the total land (1.2 Million ha) is not yet being properly used.

Therefore, if we cultivate these lands with bio fuel crops as a secondary crop, we would be able to generate enough for our economic development.

It has been observed that when the prices of fossil fuel soar, the demand for bio fuel also rises proportionately. In 2008, when the fuel prices surged and fluctuated rapidly, more and more arable lands were used to produce ethanol, resulting in serious food shortages. So, it is understood that there should be a trade off between food production and bio energy production.

Let us consider the yields for leading bio fuel corps. If we take sugar cane, (first generation ethanol) it produces nearly 7300 litres per ha., for corn, it would be 4500 per ha, for switch grass (second generation ethanol) it could be 11000 litres per ha., for oil palm it could produce 6800 per ha., (bio diesel), for coconut, it could be 3100 per ha., for sunflower and Soya beans it could be 1102 litres per ha., 500 litres per ha.So, currently bio fuel simply converts its contained carbon into either bio diesel or ethanol. Brazil is leading in the usage of bio fuel and it obtains 15% of its fuel needs from bio crops. Large countries such as USA, Canada, Australia, India and even countries in the African continent are now rapidly converting their farmlands into bio crop lands and are developing their economies based on bio fuel plantation.

This technology is now developing rapidly. Generally the first generation bio fuel converts its biomass (available as starches - such as corn, palm or sugarcane) into sugar using a process called mashing.

The second generation bio fuels are converting their non-food plants (such as switch grass, elephant grass) into their sugar, using enzymatic hydrolysis process. For both cases sugar so produced goes through a special process which ultimately produce alcohol and it finally is distilled into fuel grade ethanol, making it possible for us to use it as a liquid fuel.

It is noteworthy to see that bio fuels produces electricity as well as liquid fuel which could be used to energise the transport sector.However, in the meantime we should also remember that bio fuels are not able to replace fossil fuels easily. This is due to the fact that fossil fuels take millions of years to store and produce fuels from biomass and it is a geological energy of which the life cycle spans to a few million years.

But bio fuels could take only a few years to produce energy and its life cycle is limited to a few years and also with the limited availability of land the production of bio energy also is limited. This clearly shows that whatever the way new technology is being developed, we should curb our greed and growing energy needs. As a tropical country, the production of biomass energy could be our future. Let us grow our own energy.

(The writer is the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources)