PLANS are moving apace to exploit Guyana’s potential to produce ethanol through a private sector driven initiative, with five investors from Brazil and the U.S. lined up to establish such an industry, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud said yesterday.
He made the announcement during discussions with two European experts, Bernard Duhamel and Jean Raux, here to conduct a study for options of European Union (EU) support to African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries with respect to bio-fuels and bio-fuel feedstock development.
Mr. Persaud said the government is committed to developing agro-energy/bi-fuels in Guyana, noting that already bio-diesel is being produced from coconut and palm oil.
In this regard, he said, President Bharrat Jagdeo has established an inter-agency committee comprising Prime Minister Samuel Hinds; Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon; himself; Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Robeson Benn; Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-INVEST), Geoffrey Da Silva; Advisor to the President on Science, Technology and the Environment, Navin Chandarpal; Director of the Institute of Applied Science and Technology (IAST), Dr. Suresh Narine; a representative each of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) and the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA), Director of the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Dindyal Permaul; and Commissioner of Lands and Surveys, Andrew Bishop.
Persaud said the committee is reviewing the submissions of the five investors to determine which one has the best plan and proposals for the development of a local ethanol industry.
The European experts he met yesterday feel ethanol production would be beneficial as it would cut gasoline consumption by about 10%.
They indicated they will also be conducting similar studies in five other ACP countries across West, East and Central Africa and their reports will be forwarded to the EU, ACP and the European Investment Bank (EIB) which is one of the financial institutions likely to provide financing for ethanol-based projects in ACP countries.
The experts noted that the prospects for ethanol production here are good because of the availability of land.
The Agriculture Minister pointed out too that Guyana could benefit by exporting the product to the U.S. under the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI).
Persaud said the government has noted the current debate on whether ethanol should be manufactured from sugar cane or corn, but he assured that because of the development of the sugar industry here ethanol production will be sugar cane based.
He also assured that lands currently under cultivation for food crops will not be diverted to grow sugar cane for ethanol production and in this respect an uncultivated 50,000-hectare plot of land in the Canje basin, Berbice, has been identified as one option for the approved investor to develop.
Research and studies will be done too to examine the feasibility of growing sugar cane in the Intermediate Savannahs for the production of ethanol, Persaud said, recalling that Guyana has benefited from studies of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
A recent bio-fuel study by ECLAC concluded that: “Present conditions of the energy and agro-industrial sector of Guyana provide an excellent opportunity for the production and use of ethanol as a source of fuel in the country.”
President Jagdeo also expressed great optimism on the issue declaring: “we have embarked on this process having discussions with various groups as to whether we go ahead with the ethanol project. This could add a new sector to the economy. It could create thousands of jobs and therefore we decided that this might be an appropriate use of land along the coast and possibly the intermediate savannahs.”