Dear Professor A. S. Sambo,
The article capturing your interview in the Saturday Vanguard of May 17, 2008 on p. 13, on – “Why Nigeria is de-emphasizing effort on ethanol as a bio-fuel” is very exciting and inviting. While agreeing with you on the bio-diesel bit, I believe both bio-energy efforts on bio-ethanol and bio-diesel can go alongside each other in Nigeria.
Our unique approach in the GLOBAL BIOFUEL LTD – “From sweet sorghum (a renewable bio-energy feedstock) to ethanol for blending with Petrol as Gasohol (at E10 level) for use by normal vehicles – to reduce global warming in Nigeria” is very novel in Africa and Western Hemisphere. We implement an integrated agro-allied industry comprising three major areas: a feedstock (sweet sorghum) production farm in 50 to 300ha (in 2008), 3,000 ha (by year 2009) to be upscaled to 30,000ha (in following years) in both the core farm and our outgrower scheme; an ethanol refinery complex and a Life Camp, which will be replicated in each of the seven participating states that collaborate with us. The pilot state is Ondo State in the dryn savannah agro-ecology of Akoko North West LGA. This integrated agro-industrial large scale mechanized farming with processing factory will spread into surrounding collaborating six states of Ekiti. Kogi, Kwara, Pyo and Ogun. The extreme northern parts of all these states have a long season, bi-modal rainfall pattern, which characterize the southern parts of the huge southern Guinea Savannah Agro-ecologic zone of Nigeria, between latitudes 7 N – 9.5 N.
The Global Biofuels Ltd novel initiative of ‘green to gasoline process’ using sweet sorghum as feedstock, to produce ethanol, will not compete with the food chain. Sweet sorghum is not used for food but the sweet stalk can be an occasional snack and grown only in 0.01% (75,000ha) of the land area cultivated to sorghum in Nigeria.
The main staple food crop is Grain Sorghum grown in 7.5 million ha variously for food (Tuwo, Akamu, Ogi), drinks (Kunu, Koko), malt, snack (boiled grains or roasted grain); as animal feed (leaves), and the crop residues (dry stalk used for fencing and roofing of household, crop fields and granaries and as mulch in crop fields. Significantly, Nigeria is the largest producer of grain sorghum for food in the world, while it ranks second with India, next to USA as the world’s leading producers of sorghum.
Below is the map and table which show details of the sorghum crop production areas and classifications into types based on its uses in Nigeria.
Best regards.
Prof A. B. Obilana
Head & Consultant.
GBfL
www.globabiofuelsltd.com abobilana@globalbiofuelsltd.com
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