JOHANNESBURG: Diesel made from seeds could provide South Africa’s vehicles with more environmentally friendly fuel and turn today’s rural poor into tomorrow’s oil barons.

It could also provide much needed foreign investment in Africa.

A biodiesel project set up by the Africa Eco Foundation plans to make fuel from plant seeds in small refineries spread across rural areas. Apart from providing needed jobs, such a project would also encourage polluters in developed nations to bring in ‘green’ foreign direct investment.

Under the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, developed nations will be restricted to how much they can pollute. This means they may have to invest in expensive technology to reduce their emissions, especially of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is largely responsible for global warming.

But if large carbon producers, such as power utilities and manufacturers invest in ‘green’ projects in developing countries, such as those producing alternative fuels, they can earn the right to emit greenhouse gases. They claim part of the credit for these reductions against their own limitations.

As the search for alternative fuels grows more urgent, fuels made from biomass or plant matter are growing in popularity. Multi-national oil companies are investing large amounts in research and development into this area, as environmental legislation tightens across the globe.

But although biomass projects are being established in Europe and the United States, South Africa needs to show its commitment to more renewable sources of energy.

“South Africa’s emissions per capita are considerably higher than most developing countries,” says senior researcher at the Energy and Development Research Centre in Cape Town, Randall Spalding-Fecher. “Continued high energy intensity is potentially a competitive disadvantage for the South African economy.”

But he says high carbon emissions also make South Africa an attractive candidate for international investment projects, which could help move the country’s emissions lower.

South Africa emits about 79 percent of Africa’s greenhouse gases. It imports about 3.7bn litres of diesel a year.

“If we could redistribute even a fraction of the amount otherwise spent on imports, it would have a significant economic effect on rural areas,” says Sonnenberg.

South Africa already has about five plantations of oil- producing Jatropha curcas, a plant that grows in many areas of southern Africa.

South Africa could produce about 3bn litres of biodiesel a year within 10 years, with the first crop being harvested 18 months after the trees are planted. But in the short-term, plantations in Zimbabwe and Mozambique could be used.

Jatropha grows in semi-desert regions and would be ideal for idle agricultural land and areas with poor soil quality. The crop has helped countries such as Nicaragua and Mali turn idle agricultural land into viable businesses, producing more than 1.6m litres from 1,000 ha of land in a year.

The plant is inedible, so it is not tied to the fortunes of world food commodity prices, like sunflower seeds are. “Diesel from sunflower seeds has become too expensive to produce,” he says.

The Africa Eco-Foundation’s project has been chosen as a legacy project by the organisers of the World Summit on Sustainable Development to be held in Johannesburg in August. That means it meets sustainable development criteria such as eradicating poverty and preserving the environment.

Although South Africa, like other developing nations are exempt from the emissions targets, there is concern about how the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol will affect the South Africa’s coal industry and the 61,000 workers it employs, as industrialised nations cut back on emissions.

The Africa Eco-Foundation’s project could help offset job losses. So far though, funds have not been secured to set up a demonstration refinery in time for the Summit. Sonnenberg reckons that once they set up a small refinery, it could be ready to produce diesel within a month.

The summit project committee is picky about investors in the project. It is unlikely to allow in large oil companies or leftwing environmental groups. But co-operation should be encouraged.

Many European countries now legislate that a percentage of fuel sold must be made from alternative energy sources. It could be some time before it is viable, but oil farming may replace oilrigs in the not too distant future.—Dawn/InterPress News Service.