Prospect of Bio-fuels in Sierra Leone

Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Energy Sciences, grade: 75%, University of Warwick, language: English, abstract: Sierra Leone is a major location for tropical plants such as cassava, palm oil and sugarcane. Its favourable weather conditions, plentiful supply of resources, large arable lands and assets to irrigation assets make it an ideal location for biofuel investment. The potential market for biofuel within the country is extremely small due to the costs of biodiesel and the lack of Government incentives; however its location on the coast of Africa and its vicinity to Western and African countries means offsets this drawback. The most suitable location for an ethanol plant in Sierra Leone is Kambia and for biodiesel production the ideal locations are Pujehun and Kenema. The proposed processing route for the production of cane sugar is fermentation. The recommended process for biodiesel production is an enzymatic transesterification process. This method is adopted to minimize the environmental impact of production. Nevertheless there are still several environmental concerns that arise during the production of biofuels. The most important of these are food security issues. Although the paper concludes that prospects for biofuels are large in Sierra Leone, investors must adopt an emergent strategy to minimise the risks.