Ethanol Potential

Aug 25, 2013 Editorial

Ethanol has appeared once again on the horizon of our efforts to expand our production possibility frontier in agriculture. A Bioethanol Demonstration Plant has been constructed and was commissioned at the GuySuCo Albion Sugar Estate in Berbice, last week. It is the fruit of a joint venture between the Government of Guyana (GoG) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Albion and several other GuySuCo sugar estates had long been producing “alcohol” as rum, but we should know that this is chemically the same as ethanol.
What is essentially different between the two substances is the quantity of water that is allowed to remain in the distillate from the base molasses, and this has to do with their end use. In the alcohol used for drinking, the percentage of ethanol is around 40% (dubbed as “80 proof”) with water making up the balance. In the ethanol that will be used in motor cars as a partial substitute for petroleum or in its entirety, the alcohol is brought to a much higher level of purity of 99.9%. It is also called “anhydrous” alcohol to indicate that it is free of water. To achieve this, a third manufacturing process of “dehydration”, that is, the removal of water from the distillate of the fermented molasses, is added to the other two used in ordinary distilleries.
What is important, however, is that we have at last embarked on a process that has been on the cards at least since 1998, when a strategic plan for the expansion of the sugar industry was unveiled. Rather than sell-off the massive amount of molasses that is created as a by-product in the production of sugar from sugar cane, it could be used to produce the much more value-added ethanol. Brazil took a lead in this process in a strategic way following the first oil crisis in 1973 and is today the world leader in the production of ethanol as a fuel. Early on, Brazil mandated that 10% of the fuel in its cars (dubbed E10) would be ethanol, and this quantity was added at the pumps. With this level of ethanol added to the petroleum, there is no need for the modification of the engines that would be necessary if the percentages were higher.
As is evident from its eponymous name, the facility at Albion is intended to “demonstrate” the feasibility of the anhydrous process and to also train personnel in the production of the ethanol. The E10 product will also be tested on some GuySuCo vehicles. We believe this is a very prudent move, in view of our problems in dealing with what was thought to be a manufacturing process that we thought our workers were able to assimilate. Once we have mastered the technology and the logistical demands, we should be able to launch the full-scale ethanol production plant that was envisaged in the 1998 Sugar Plan.
Some years ago, during his visit to our country, then Brazilian President Lula had promised the donation of a commercial ethanol production plant. Now that we have launched the Demonstration plant, we should contact the Brazilian authorities to consummate the promise. This plant should be able to process all our excess molasses beyond our contracted quantities from the other sugar estates. When Skeldon is brought up to its optimum production levels, then its molasses should be used to produce alcohol as rum, through the construction of a regular distillery.
There is always talk of Guyana becoming a major producer of ethanol. However, we must not hang our hat where it is clear our hand cannot reach. For production of ethanol beyond our present molasses excess, we will have to grow additional sugar cane and process it directly into ethanol. We know to our cost, our difficulty in growing and harvesting sugar cane.
We should leave this to the private sector. There has already been one project in the pipeline by Ansa McAl for some time. Today another private proposal will be inked. We wish them all success.

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