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Tinashe Makichi Business Reporter
Zimbabwe’s bio-fuels sector is still lagging behind in terms of the word production matrix, where the country and Africa as a whole still have little to contribute.
A lot of discord has been witnessed in Zimbabwe, where some motorists campaigned against bio-fuel, but the problem is not the motorists.

The problem is the production capacities of local companies who somewhat have failed to produce the required ethanol for blending, hence leaving motorists in confusion.

That being said, fuel energy crisis continue to bite, thus culminating in the oscillation of prices as well as fuel unavailability.

As a matter of urgency, it is high time countries like Zimbabwe started opening up more bio-energy/fuel projects in order to address the energy deficit currently affecting a lot of motorists.

It still remains a mystery to most people as to what really are bio-fuels and their importance in addressing fuel energy problems.

In this case, a bio-fuel is a fuel  that contains energy from geologically recent carbon fixation and is produced from living organisms.

Bio-fuels include ethanol fuel, which is the most common biofuel worldwide, particularly in Brazil.

Alcohol fuels are produced by fermentation of sugars derived from wheat, corn, sugar beets, sugar cane and any sugar or starch, from which alcoholic beverages can be made (such as potato and fruit waste etc.)

Considering the challenges that the country is facing, policy makers should now take a bold step towards making sure things like sewage and other waste are converted into energy, thus generating more capital for the fiscus.

More room should be given to investors willing to invest towards that sector so that when more bio-fuel is produced, motorists will learn to appreciate the significance of bio-fuel.

The biggest challenge that Zimbabwe has at the moment is that projects like the one Chisumbanje are not able to consistently provide the ethanol required for blending, hence leaving the issue of prices in the open.

Recently, a consortium of six major world car manufacturers and oil companies, Volkswagen, Daimler, Honda, Neste Oil, OMV and Shell published a “biofuel roadmap” for the EU to 2030.

The roadmap, prepared by technical consultancy E4tech, may be seen as an attempt by industry to transcend the current deadlock between the European Parliament and EU Member States over new biofuels legislation, which is crippling bio-fuel investment.

The roadmap provided a comprehensive long-term plan for EU-wide bio-fuel policy that connects the fuels and auto industries and that, according to these industries, would deliver “important greenhouse gas emission savings”.

The same strategy should be adopted, especially by Zimbabwe, to address the issue of fuel with countries like Sweden, with a sharp growth from 717 vehicles in 2001 to 195 545 by May 2010.

Also, Sweden has the largest ethanol bus fleet in the world, with over 600 buses running on ED95, mainly in Stockholm. Dozens of municipalities in that country have started producing bio-gas from sewage.

At the end of 2009, there were 23 000 gas vehicles and 104 public filling stations in Sweden.

In order for Zimbabwe to achieve the goal of having a world class bio-energy industry, there has to be several government incentives that should be implemented to make sure the industry starts making meaningful contribution into the country’s energy sector.

It is a welcome development that the World Wide Fund For Nature-Zimbabwe Country Office, with financial support from the European Commission, has been working on the implementation of a four-and-a half-year Bio-Energy project entitled “Bio-fuels Policies and Practices for the Sustainable Socio-economic Development of Zimbabwe”.

The project is working with communities in Mutoko and Mudzi districts in the Mashonaland East province of Zimbabwe.

Partners and associates on the project include Environment Africa, University of Zimbabwe, Department of Research and Specialist Services, the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate, Mutoko Rural District Council and Mudzi Rural District Council.

Within the bio-fuel family is bio-diesel, which can be used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form, but it is usually used as a diesel additive to reduce levels of particulates, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons from diesel-powered vehicles.

Bio-diesel is produced from oils or fats using transesterification and is the most common bio-fuel in Europe.

Therefore, to show how much the world has advanced towards the use of bio-energy, in 2010, worldwide bio-fuel production reached 105 billion litres (28 billion gallons US), up 17 percent from 2009, and bio-fuels provided 2,7 percent of the world’s fuels for road transport, a contribution largely made up of ethanol and bio-diesel.

Global ethanol fuel production reached 86 billion litres (23 billion gallons US) in 2010, with the United States and Brazil as the world’s top producers, accounting together for 90 percent of global production.

The world’s largest bio-diesel producer is the European Union, accounting for 53 percent of all bio-diesel production in 2010.