Colombia: a biofuels superpower in the making

The sun generates energy; sugar cane, cassava, African oil palm, beets and potatoes store it; and Colombians are determined to transform the energy concentrated in these crops into biofuels. They know they have an excellent climate, ample land resources and a huge potential to produce green fuels.

To harvest Colombia's sunlight and soil resources the Colombian Environment Ministry is developing an ambituous biofuels plan, with a series of separate projects involving these crops.

Peak Oil, a reality in Colombia
The aim is to confront the drop in Colombia’s oil reserves and to place the country at the forefront of the generation of clean fuels in Latin America, where Brazil is a pioneer and the top global producer of ethanol made from sugar cane. President Álvaro Uribe announced on Aug. 7, at the start of his second term, that production of biofuels would be one of his administration’s priorities.

The government reported this month that oil production dropped 0.5 percent in the first quarter of the year due, among other factors, to a reduction in output at one of the country’s biggest oil fields: the northeastern complex of Cusiana-Cupiagua, which produced 116,000 barrels in June, 16,000 barrels less than in January. It also reported that 20 of 38 exploratory wells that were drilled have been closed off and abandoned because little oil was found, even though foreign investment in the industry is at one of its highest peaks.

It seems that the grim reality of Peak Oil is knocking at Colombia's door. And this constitutes a threat to the country's energy security, export revenues and in the long run to its overall prosperity.

Biofuels to the rescue
Besides the usual energy crops, potatoes and castor oil are also being studied as a source of biofuel, according to Leonidas Tobón, director of the Agriculture Ministry’s Institute of Technological Development. "The production of biofuels will be very important this decade in Colombia, because it is driving the cultivation of crops that did not previously play a role in industry, like sugar cane and cassava," he said. "It has also given a boost to the sugar cane-growing Valle del Cauca region (in the west), where five mills currently produce one million litres of ethanol per day."

In January 2005, Colombia began to mix gasoline with 10 percent ethanol produced from sugar cane, and the plan is to gradually increase the proportion until reaching 25 percent in 20 years. The one million litres of ethanol currently produced from sugar cane supplies only Bogota and the southern and western regions of the country. But output should increase by half a million litres to cover other important regions in the north and the east, according to Tobón.

Some 200,000 hectares are currently planted in sugar cane, 50,000 of which go towards the production of ethanol. That means "between 15 and 25 percent of surplus sugar, which used to be sold at a low price on the international market, is now used in biofuels," he said.

The cassava revolution
But Colombia’s "big discovery" in terms of biofuel production is, without a doubt, cassava, considered the "poorest" of the basic food crops, which played virtually no role in agribusiness until recently, even though it is grown in every region. Cassava has now become the second source of ethanol in Colombia:
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The first plant in this country to produce ethanol from cassava -- 20,000 litres a day this year -- is run by the private firm Petrotesting, which also exploits natural gas, oil and coal. It is a two-hour drive from Puerto López in the central province of Meta.

Seven million dollars have been invested in the ethanol plant so far. But the company plans to increase output in the medium term to one million litres a day, according to the project director, engineer Jaime Jaramillo.

"We started five years ago, and when we decided to build the plant, we already had experience in cassava, as well as in hydrocarbons. It was a perfect marriage," Jaramillo says.

Tests were first carried out with different varieties of cassava, until researchers settled on three that are well-adapted to the acidic soil and the climate of Colombia’s eastern plains region, agronomist Álvaro Santos commented.

Petrotesting also signed an agreement with the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), based in the western city of Cali, to research which varieties of cassava would be most profitable in the production of ethanol. CIAT has an internationally renowned cassava improvement programme, with more than 6,000 varieties in its gene bank.

"There are species that have a smaller starch granule and thus require a smaller quantity of enzymes to break it down, and we are studying these varieties," Hernán Ceballos, the manager of CIAT’s cassava project says.

There are also sweet cassava plants used by indigenous people in Ecuador, Guyana, Colombia and Brazil to make a kind of beer. The sweet varieties, which are easier to ferment, could be better for the production of ethanol. "That fills us with optimism and leads us to believe that in around 10 years we will have a raw material of excellent quality," said Ceballos.

A total of 350 hectares were initially planted with the three abovementioned varieties of cassava for use by the Petrotesting plant that produces biofuel. But 30 other varieties are also being studied, and the cassava plantations should expand to 800 hectares by the end of the year.

The plant is using Italian technology and will be assisted by technical experts from Brazil and Colombia. Investors from the United States and Japan have expressed an interest in the project, but would get involved in the second phase. "We are very optimistic with respect to the future," said Jaramillo.

And he has reason to be. The company’s ethanol project is getting underway with prospects for success, and there is a possibility of cutting production costs due to the advances achieved in transforming starch into sugar.

"The 'gringos' have really made progress in the processing of corn and have made discoveries in terms of technology, new enzymes and yeasts. Those advances are useful to us in working with cassava," he said.

To preserve the environment, a crop rotation system is being created, using corn, soybeans and sweet sorghum, "in order to strengthen the soil and improve its physical and chemical characteristics," said Jaramillo.

The Agriculture Ministry maintains that environmental problems should not be caused by the sugar cane or cassava plantations, because "open grassland areas are used, like in the eastern plains or the Magdalena Medio region in central Colombia, where no jungle or forest has to be cleared," said Tobón.

Some 128,000 hectares of cassava are currently planted in Colombia, mainly for human consumption. But cultivation of the crop is growing, not only for the production of ethanol but for other industrial uses as well.

Biodegradable plastic and even overfenders for cars have begun to be produced from the bitter starch of cassava, as part of a project that is being carried out with the support of the Japanese carmaker Toyota.

There are currently two other biofuel projects using cassava, in the northern provinces of Sucre and Córdoba, one of which plans to produce 75,000 litres a day of ethanol, with an initial investment of 30 million dollars and the support of the Agriculture Ministry.

Thus, a new use has been found for a crop that has been used in agriculture by indigenous people in the region for 10,000 to 12,000 years, according to research studies.

Text adapted from: IPS News (*subscription req'd), Harvesting Sunshine for Biofuels