Potential to expand sustainable bioenergy from sugarcane in southern Africa

Watson, H. K.

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2010.07.035

Cited by 35 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…As for biofuels, there are a number of compelling studies that argue that because of the vast amount of idle land available, and low productivity, food security in Sub-Saharan Africa would not be significantly affected by the expansion of biomass for energy and, could actually be enhanced through economic development, by improving agriculture and reducing foreign energy imports [56,57] Lynd and Woods [19].…”

Section: The Role Of Agriculturementioning

confidence: 99%

Food versus Fuel: Toward a New Paradigm—The Need for a Holistic Approach

Rosillo-Calle

2012

ISRN Renewable Energy

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A key objective of this paper is to provide an assessment of the current and future situation on the "food versus fuel" debate and to contribute to possible alternatives to minimise or avoid future conflict. The debate has centred on three main areas: (i) food versus biofuel production, (ii) their positive and negative effects (i.e., GHG, climate change, and the broader environment), and (iii) a socioeconomic impact. The debate has been controversial because it has largely been driven by politics, ethical/moral considerations, and vested interests rather than by science. The paper focuses on food prices, land competition, GHG, energy balance, and energy subsidies and concerns with the rapid expansion of bioenergy for electricity and heat, climatic changes, the role of agriculture as a key factor, the potential of biomass energy resources, and the various alternatives to minimize or avoid conflict between food and fuel production. Biomass for energy is both "part of the problem and part of the solution." It proposes a holistic approach: a new paradigm that takes full account of the diverse and complex nature of biomass energy sources and states that the fundamental underlying causes are social injustice, inequality, waste, and so forth, rather than land competition for food and fuel.

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Section: The Role Of Agriculturementioning

confidence: 99%

Food versus Fuel: Toward a New Paradigm—The Need for a Holistic Approach

Rosillo-Calle

2012

ISRN Renewable Energy

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“…Currently, South Africa produces about 20 million tonnes of cane (about 50% of Africa's production) on 325 000 hectares of land. If the full potential of the estimated 6 million hectares of land suitable for sugarcane production in Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe are also realised, about 400 million tonnes of cane can be produced, which could yield 49 Gl ethanol, about 20% of Africa's current total petroleum consumption (Somerville et al, 2010;Watson, 2011). Almost a fifth of the terrestrial surface on earth is semi-arid and prone to droughts with a rainfall of between 200 and 800 mm per year.…”

Section: Feedstocks and Conversion Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing Organisms for Consolidated Bioprocessing of Biomass to Ethanol

Zyl¹,

Haan²,

Grange³

2011

Biofuel Production-Recent Developments and Prospects

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“…However, most of the studies about the potential of the biomass as renewable energy in Africa address only the geographic suitability of renewable energy sources (Watson, 2011;FAO, 2012b) or a general overview about the potential energy supply (IRENA-DBFZ, 2013). There is a lack of studies that quantify how much is the ability to replace the current and future uses of traditional biomass and fossil fuels or even enlarge the electricity access according to the current and projected demand.…”

Section: Us Energy Information Administration (Eia 2012)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the real potential of biomass in Africa is still not accurate-studies report an enormous range of suitable area for biomass production (IRENA-DBFZ, 2013), we assumed the use of only 1% of the pasture area, which the equivalent area is realistic in terms of suitable land (Watson, 2011;FAO, 2012b;Johnson and Seebaluck, 2012) (Table 2). Pasture lands are usually underutilized, and by using appropriated pasture management integrated with sustainable intensification practices, such as rotational grazing, incorporation of legumes and integrated crop-livestock-forestry systems, is possible to increase agricultural output (Latawiec et al, 2014) without compromising the grazing activity.…”

Section: Us Energy Information Administration (Eia 2012)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential of Sugarcane in Modern Energy Development in Southern Africa

et al. 2016

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For more than half of the Southern African population, human development is limited by a lack of access to electricity and modern energy for cooking. Modern bioenergy merits consideration as one means to address this situation in areas where sufficient arable land is available. While numerous studies have concluded that Africa has significant biomass potential, they do not indicate by how much it can effectively reduce the use of traditional biomass and provide more accessible energy, especially at a country level. Here, we evaluate the potential of sugarcane to replace traditional biomass and fossil fuel and enlarge the access to electricity in Southern Africa. By using its current molasses for ethanol production, Swaziland could increase electricity generation by 40% using bagasse and replace 60% of cooking fuel or 30% of liquid fossil fuel. Sugarcane expansion over 1% of the pasture land in Angola, Mozambique, and Zambia could replace greater than 70% of cooking fuel. Bioelectricity generation from modest sugarcane expansion could be increased by 10% in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia and by 20% in Angola. Our results support the potential of sugarcane as a modern energy alternative for Southern Africa.

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Potential to expand sustainable bioenergy from sugarcane in southern Africa

Cited by 35 publications

References 2 publications

Food versus Fuel: Toward a New Paradigm—The Need for a Holistic Approach

Food versus Fuel: Toward a New Paradigm—The Need for a Holistic Approach

Developing Organisms for Consolidated Bioprocessing of Biomass to Ethanol

Potential of Sugarcane in Modern Energy Development in Southern Africa

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