TITLE:
Assessment of Feedstock Options for Biofuels Production in Ghana
AUTHORS:
Francis Kemausuor, Joseph Oppong Akowuah, Emmanuel Ofori
KEYWORDS:
Biofuels; Feedstock; Ghana
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Sustainable Bioenergy Systems,
Vol.3 No.2,
June
25,
2013
ABSTRACT: In the wake of climate
change and increasing fossil fuel prices, biofuels are becoming attractive to
agricultural dependent economies in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions of the world. This
study evaluates the energy production potential of biomass resources grown on
the available arable agricultural land under two principal scenarios: using
2.5% and 5% of the available arable land for energy crop expansion. Using conservative
biofuel yields from crops in the sub-region, a 2.5% of uncultivated arable
land dedicated to four traditional crops grown in Ghana namely maize, cassava,
sweet sorghum and oil palm could potentially replace 9.3% and 7.2% of
transportation fuels by 2020 and 2030 respectively. Using 5% of the uncultivated
arable land to cultivate the above four crops and jatropha could potentially
produce biofuel to replace 17.3% of transport fuels by 2020 and 13.3% by 2030.
In order to enrol such a scheme, government is encouraged to put in place
appropriate structures to ensure that, the industry meet international
sustainability standards.