Potential of Sugarcane in Modern Energy Development in Southern Africa

Simone P Souza,Lee Rybeck Lynd,Mosad Elmissiry,Luiz A Horta Nogueira,Luís A B Cortez,Helen K Watson

doi:10.3389/fenrg.2016.00039

Abstract

For more than half of the Southern African population, human development is limited by a lack of access to electricity and modern energy for cooking. Modern bioenergy merits consideration as one means to address this situation in areas where sufficient arable land is available. While numerous studies have concluded that Africa has significant biomass potential, they do not indicate by how much it can effectively reduce the use of traditional biomass and provide more accessible energy, especially at a country level. Here, we evaluate the potential of sugarcane to replace traditional biomass and fossil fuel, and enlarge the access to electricity in Southern Africa. By using its current molasses for ethanol production, Swaziland could increase electricity generation by 40% using bagasse, and replace 60% of cooking fuel or 30% of liquid fossil fuel. Sugarcane expansion over 1% of the pasture land in Angola, Mozambique, and Zambia could replace greater than 70% of cooking fuel. Bioelectricity generation from modest sugarcane expansion could be increased by 10% in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia, and by 20% in Angola. Our results support the potential of sugarcane as a modern energy alternative for Southern Africa.

Highlights

Most of the population of Southern African lacks access to electricity and modern energy for cooking (FAO, 2012c; IEA, 2014a)
By using energy demand data (Table 1) and applying some assumptions to project a future scenario for 2030, we evaluated the potential of sugarcane to provide cleaner and more accessible energy in Southern Africa by considering two scenarios: Current Molasses (CM) and New Policies (NP)
We evaluated the potential of sugarcane to provide cleaner and more accessible energy in Southern Africa by considering a short-term framework, named CM scenario, and an enhanced approach likely to be deployed over the medium to long term, entitled NP scenario

Summary

Introduction

Most of the population of Southern African lacks access to electricity and modern energy for cooking (FAO, 2012c; IEA, 2014a). Their heavy dependence on the traditional biomass for cooking direct affect the living conditions in this region. Charcoal and firewood supply more than 95% of the cooking energy consumption in Mozambique and Malawi. In South Africa, only 13% of the population relies on the traditional use of biomass (IEA, 2014b). The use of charcoal and firewood has been related to approximately 600,000 premature death per year in Africa (WHO, 2013). The use of these traditional biomass leads to household energy accidents, such as burns, scalds, fires, and poisonings (Kimemia et al, 2014)

Methods

Results

Conclusion