Bio-diesel: planning a bigger yield at low cost

By Chaudhry Kamran Naseer

The current inflation is not only due to the markets’ faulty structures, but also because of short supply (supply side inflation) due to low productivity on account of increase in the prices of agricultural inputs. Therefore, government actions to control the market situation may be necessary, but it alone will not be enough and an integrated policy is needed to reduce overall cultivation cost by keeping the prices of farm inputs within the reach of farmers so that efficiency of agricultural production and per hectare yield can be increased and low cost food can be provided to the public.

While discussing reduction of cultivation cost, consideration of fertilizer and diesel are most important as cost of both inputs constitute approximate 70-80 per cent of total cost needed to cultivate different crops. Fertilizers are considered necessary to enhance crop yield and plant resistance to diseases and climatic changes, while diesel is required for ploughing which is necessary to prepare land and ground water suction / provision which is indirectly due to lack of surface water, so both inputs are most essential to acquire desired per hectare yield. To fulfil surface water shortage only in Punjab, one million diesel driven tube wells are used.

Cost of these two inputs have risen in recent years sharply, due to which production cost of different crops have also increased. Hence, fertilizer and water are prominent high expenditure consuming inputs. Due to high costs of these inputs, currently farmers are cutting the overall cost by reducing the quantity of inputs which adversely affects crop yield.

If diesel and fertilizers are provided to farmers at a low price, their overall crop cultivation expenditures can be reduced significantly, which is necessary not only to enhance per hectare investment and agricultural production but for provision of cheap food items in the market.

But the question is how these inputs can be provided at a low price especially in a situation where the country is oil deficient, installed fertilizer plants are unable to meet required demand and imports of both items is already disturbing trade gap? If specific attention is paid on cultivation and utilization of biological renewable sources, such as algae, both the low cost fertilizers and diesel can be produced and provided to farmers.

It is this fatty acid (oil) that can be extracted and converted into bio-diesel. Different kinds of algae have different ratio of fatty acids, from two per cent to 40 per cent of their overall mass. Due to this high weight age of fatty acid, algae have more capacity of producing oil as compared to other bio-fuel feedstock. A comparison of algae oil yield with other feedstock of bio-fuel is given in the table below:

__________________________________________

GALLONS OF OIL PER ACRE PER YEAR

__________________________________________

Corn    18

Soybeans          48

Safflower          83

Sunflower          102

Rapeseed          127

Oil palm          635

Micro Algae          *1850 (based on

          actual biomass yields)

Micro Algae          *5000-15000

          (theoretical laboratory yield)

Source: PESWiki.com

__________________________________________

From the table it is clear that algae have far more capacity of producing bio-diesel than all other bio-fuel feedstock. Further, different methods that are used for extracting oil from seeds like expeller, hexane solvent oil extraction, supercritical fluid extraction etc., can also be applied for extracting oil from algae. Oil obtained from algae is actually bio-diesel (close to petroleum diesel). Due to high viscosity and flashpoint bio-diesels are often used by mixing them with petroleum diesel. This mixture of petroleum diesel and bio-diesel can be used in engine without any change in an engine’s structure. As the basic requirements for algae growth are sunlight, carbon dioxide and water, they can be grown in almost any type of environment, like in salt water, fresh water, at sea, in the waste water ponds, saline lakes, marshes, salt marshes, and even in closed vessels.

Due to these properties of algae, many oil companies are investing in industries which can produce oil from algae. Bill Gates has also invested in the algae for bio-fuel project. A lot of other companies are also taking part in growing algae.

Some companies have started bio-diesel production from algae at commercial level and others are in the process of planning. For example, Petro Sun, on April 1, 2008, started operations of its commercial algae to bio-fuels farm located on the Texas Gulf Coast near Harlingen. The farm consists of 1,100 acres (445ha) of open saltwater ponds. The plant is expected to produce some 4.4 million gallons of algal oil, plus 49,900 tons of biomass a year.

If bio-diesel is produced from algae at commercial level in Pakistan a large quantity of bio-diesel can be produced in a year reducing oil imports bill. After mixing with petroleum diesel it can be given to farmers at a low price for diesel driven pumps to suck ground water. Keeping in mind that 1,850 gallons (7003.012 litters) of oil can be produced from per acre of algae, it can easily be calculated how much acres would be needed to cultivate algae to meet total diesel demand. The worked out figure (table) indicates that only 1.5 million acres (only 3.75 per cent of barren land) cultivated with algae can produce 10,504 million litters of bio-diesel, which would be more than sufficient for annual requirement of 10 million tons.

After the necessary oil (bio-diesel) extraction from algae, by-products / leftover which are in the form of a mixture of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, nitrogen, phosphorus, organic molecules that contain hydrogen, small quantities of other atoms like alkali, alkaline earth and magnesium etc., can be used as fertilizer for the food crops.

Giving low cost fertilizer and bio-diesel to farmers will lead not only to production of low cost high crop yield that will help to solve the problems of food shortage and inflation, but it will also block import of food items and can play a significant role in reducing trade deficit. Further, it will improve the saving of farmers necessary to increase per hectare investment by reducing their expenditures which they pay against costly fertilizers and diesel.

To boost production and to increase cultivation area of crops, government has to announce price support which is also a big reason of inflation, in the sense that one side it is beneficing the farmers and the other, high cost industrial product in market, as most industries’ raw material is agricultural output like wheat, sugarcane etc. So, it is not the proper solution. The only way to exalt low cost agricultural production is timely provision of basic inputs at low price and cultivation of algae can be a viable solution in this respect. New algae to bio-diesel plants will cause to utilize non arable lands and create high employment that will result in reduction of poverty. Government should take steps in this regard at the earliest.