Zimbabwe is spending an estimated US$120 million on fuel imports every month, amounting to an annual bill of around US$1,4 billion.

Stephen Tsoroti

HAMSTRUNG by debilitating liquidity challenges, Zimbabwe is missing the chance to improve its revenue position by neglecting the development of biofuels, a renewable energy expert has noted.
Clement Shonhiwa, a renewable energy expert and consultant at the University of Zimbabwe, said the country stood to benefit a lot if it fully utilises its capacity to produce ethanol from sugarcane and biodiesel from other sources such as jatropha.
Zimbabwe is spending an estimated US$120 million on fuel imports every month, amounting to an annual bill of around US$1,4 billion.
With only one biofuel plant operating at Chisumbanje in the Lowveld, albeit with numerous challenges, the country has the potential of establishing many more ethanol producing plants that would assist it in reducing its fuel import bill.
The Chisumbanje ethanol plant, at optimum capacity, has the potential of reducing the country’s fuel importation bill by about US$20 million, while the plant produces 20MW of electricity in the process..
Citing the ethanol plant in Chisumbanje and the biodiesel plant in Mt Hampden, which was commissioned in 2007 and only operated for a year before it collapsed owing to financial problems, Shonhiwa said Zimbabwe is capable of being self-reliant on fuel.
However, lack of funding has seen many noble projects shelved while state-of-the-art equipment that was installed collects dust.
“Ethanol is an alcohol that can power petrol engines and is produced from the fermentation of starch or carbohydrates. It can either be used to blend petrol, which is the mixture of it and petrol, or on its own. Mixtures range from 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 up to 85 percent in some countries,” said Shonhiwa.
In Brazil, the United States and Germany, the percentage is now 100 percent ethanol while Zimbabwe is currently stuck at 15 percent ethanol (E15) which is the government approved percentage as both the motorists and fuel industry haggle over its merits and demerits.
As a result, the biodiesel project, which would not only have used oils from the jatropha plant alone but from other crops such as sunflower, groundnuts, cotton seed, rape seed, caster bean, has been reduced to a white elephant after some tried to make political mileage out of it.
With a tonne of jatropha seeds capable of producing about 300 litres of biodiesel and with a hectare of jatropha, when well fed under appropriate conditions right, producing up to 12 tonnes, the country can cut the fuel import bill by at least 3 600 litres/hectare with the capacity of huge savings owing to increased hectrage planted. On average, a hectare can produce about five to six tonnes which is equivalent to 1 500 litres.
“Green fuels are environmental friendly,” said Shonhiwa, adding: “Biofuels do not contain sulphur, unlike the other fuels. It is this sulphur which is the chief culprit in polluting the environment. Instead, it produces carbon dioxide, which is needed by plants, hence the name clean energy.”
Unlike biofuels, the conventional fuels require more energy to burn, producing nitrous oxides (NOxs) because of incomplete combustion. If NOxs, a very harmful substance, comes into contact with water vapour, it forms nitric acid which is equally toxic as well.
“As for Zimbabwe, more research is required to ascertain engine performances, crop yield, pests and diseases control, because conditions differ from those countries where biofuel has been proven to have performed well,” Shonhiwa however said.

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