Biodiesel development in Botswana — Opportunities and challenges

Abstract

The ever increasing price of petroleum-based fuels and lack of energy security form the major challenge facing majority of non-oil producing countries, Botswana included. A number of countries are now encouraging the use of alternative sources of energy including biofuels. Botswana is also encouraging this trend. Available evidence indicates that a small quantity of biodiesel fuel is produced from used waste cooking oil in Botswana. However, the quality of the product is not yet known because there are presently no local biodiesel standards through which small local producers can demonstrate that their product has been produced according to an approved procedure and is consistently of high quality. A comparative analysis between biodiesel and petroleum-based diesel revealed that the quality in terms of thermal efficiency of biodiesel produced by one of the local company (Biodiesel Botswana) compares well with the data for petroleum-based diesel fuel.