 The
first vehicle completely powered by a biofuel made from cassava
roots is already on the move in the department of Valle del
Cauca, Colombia.
The test run is being carried out using a CIAT pick-up truck.
CIAT, together with Clayuca,
a consortium that supports cassava research and development
in Latin America and the Caribbean, recently inaugurated a
pilot small-scale processing plant that produces hydrated
ethanol using cassava, sugar sorghum, or sweet potato as raw
material. This fuel contains 4%-5% water, hence its name of
hydrated ethanol.
The vehicle has already covered 700 kilometers, "without
feeling the change," says Bernardo Ospina, executive
director of Clayuca. Ospina decided to set the example and
demonstrate the effectiveness of the new technology developed
in Brazil.
 Any
vehicle can be converted to this system by installing a kit
that can be purchased in Brazil, over the Internet. The kit
costs approximately US$120, is very easy to install, and allows
the car to run purely on ethanol, gasoline, or on a mixture
of both, in any proportion. "A mixture of 85% bio-ethanol
and 15% gasoline is recommended, but we are using 100% bio-ethanol
in this test run," continues Ospina. "The device
allows the motor to make adjustments in the ignition system
to better use the larger amount of oxygen present in the ethanol."
Because this is a pilot project, the vehicle uses ethanol
prepared by Clayuca's pilot plant at CIAT's headquarters in
Cali, which has capacity to produce an average of 300 liters
per day.
The hydrated ethanol can also be used to generate bio-electricity.
A stationary ethanol-operated plant can produce up to 110
and 120 volts electricity. Four liters of hydrated ethanol
are needed to generate 1 hour of electric power.
The use of hydrated ethanol as vehicle fuel began to gain
importance in Brazil in 2003 when flexible-fuel vehicles,
locally known as Flex vehicles, were introduced to the market.
These vehicles are capable of operating on any mixture of
gasoline and hydrated ethanol. Estimates are that, in April
2009, Brazil's fleet of Flex vehicles, which operate with
a mixture of 86% bio-ethanol and 14% gasoline, surpassed the
7.5 million units.
In Colombia, the current mixture is 10% alcohol fuel (produced
with sugarcane) and 90% gasoline.
 The
production of hydrated ethanol at the CIAT/Clayuca pilot plant
is the basis of a work methodology known as rural social bio-refineries
because their low installation and operation costs can make
a significant contribution to rural communities located in
marginal areas that lack access to electric power systems.
The raw material used does not compete with products for
human consumption because the cassava varieties used are industrial
(inedible) types, developed by CIAT researchers, with high
starch content. The stems of sugar sorghum and sweet potato,
an Andean crop little used as food in Colombia, are also used.
The concept of a rural social bio-refinery seeks to motivate
institutions to endorse the use of this technology, since
the raw materials are entirely used. In addition to producing
hydrated ethanol, the potential contaminating processing wastes,
similar to sugar industry effluents known as vinasse, are
being used to prepare nutritional blocks for livestock and
fertilizers to reactivate soils.
"Any rural community that does not yet have connection
to electric power can set aside 3-5 hectares to grow cassava
as an energy crop and what is produced would be sufficient
to provide electric power for 6 hours a day, all year round,"
says Ospina. The same result can be obtained with other crops
such as sweet potato and sugar sorghum. "The impact potential
of this approach is enormous if we consider that, according
to the United Nations, nearly 2 billion people worldwide still
do not have access to electric power."
Valle del Cauca's Governor, Juan Carlos Abadía, observed
first-hand the operation of the pilot plant and expressed
his interest in implementing the technology in several regions
of the department? This prototype bio-refinery also attracted
the attention of representatives of numerous organizations
around the world that participated in Clayuca's Annual Meeting
of Partners recently.
Contact:
- Bernardo Ospina (b.ospina@cgiar.org),
CLAYUCA - CIAT. Phone: +57 (2) 4450157, A.A. 6713, Cali.
- Neil Palmer (n.palmer@cgiar.org),
Public Awareness Officer, CIAT.
Phone: +57 (2) 4450000 (ext. 3008).
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