Nigeria’s Ekiti State gives 37,500 acres for cassava ethanol project; state aims to become biofuel hub
In Nigeria, Ekiti State has given 37,500 hectares of land to the Oke-Ayedun cassava ethanol project, for feedstock cultivation. The state governor also pledged to Chinese investors that the state would assume the costs of the land survey and title documents.
The project will be the third cassava ethanol project in the country, with the other two located at Ilemeso and Iyemero, including the 17 Mgy CrowNek Green Energy ethanol plant . The $122 million CrowNek project, which opened in September 2008, was the first Nigerian ethanol facility to commence production, and uses cassava as a feedstock.
The state government said that it intended to make Ekiti state a major biofuel producer and said that sweet sorghum as well as cassava would be developed.
Last October, Nigeria’s Taraba State government announced a pact with the China-based A-Dinota Ventures Ltd, to build a 19 Mgy cassava ethanol plant. The $115 million project will also produce 360,000 tons of cassava flour, 1.87 million tons of CO2 and 57 Mgy of liquid fertilizer per year. The public-private project, in which the state has a 15 percent interest, will also produce 1600 MWh of electricity.
In July 2008, Kwara Casplex said that it will produce 30.6 million tonnes of cassava ethanol at new production facilities planned for Oyo and Ekiti states. The company said that it would sequester and market CO2 produced at the facility, and use the waste biomass to produce electricity. “Our project is 100% self-sufficient in energy utilisation,” Casplex director Femi Awoniyi told Business Day online.
Nigeria background
In Nigeria, Global Biofuels has committed $750 million to the first series of ethanol plants in the country, which will use sweet sorghum as a feedstock and will be constructed in Ekiti State. The company held a ground breaking ceremony this week.
The Nigerian federal government has outlawed the use of ethanol after officials proposed the ban because they lack the testing equipment to check on the ethanol blend in shipments reaching the country.
In Switzerland, the managing director of HG Consulting told the Sugaronline conference that Africa lacks the infrastructure and regulatory framework to become a major biofuels exporter at present.
Officials sent 50 Nigerian officials to the World Ag Expo in February to seek biofuel investment partners and technological expertise.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has approved development of the first commercial-scale plant in Nigeria.
Recently, Oloche Edache, FAO regional representative for Africa, said that Nigeria will require a 70 to 80 per cent increase in food supplies to meet its food requirements by 2015.
The Minister of Commerce and Industry said last month that Nigeria is building five new sugar plants and has the potential to become a leading ethanol producer.
The Nigerian Cassava Growers Association said that Nigeria will save over $6.1 billion by 2012 on the importation of kerosene and gasoline.
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