Biofuel Production in Developing Countries :: Sorghum and greenhouse gas balances

1. Biofuel Production in Developing Countries :: Sorghum and greenhouse gas balances Fao / Ifad / Icrisat consultation Rome, Italy 8-9 November 2007 Jeff Tschirley Environment, Climate change and Bioenergy (Nrc) Interdepartmental working group on Bioenergy Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

2. Developed market economies9 Countries in transition25 854 million (820 in developing countries) Sub-Saharan Africa206 Asia and Pacific524 Near East and North Africa38 212 million India 150 million China Latin America and Caribbean52 Where are the hungry? Where is the energy deficit?

3. Why Sorghum? • Comparative advantage – food system, bioenergy system • Greenhouse gas benefits – methodologies under discussion, different systems under development • Life Cycle analysis – complex, time consuming Ghg benefits alone may be insufficient to justify sorghum emphasis, also look for: • Complementary to other biofuel crops • Multiple functions in production system

4. Sequestration over many years : Cumulative avoided emissions per hectare over 30 years compared with carbon sequestered over 30 years by changing cropland to forest and loss of carbon to atmosphere by conversion of forest to cropland. Error bars indicate values in literature cited. Righelato and Spracklen, 2007

5. Life Cycle Analysis central to all ghg balance estimates : • Iso 14040 Life cycle assessment • International Energy Agency (IEA) Bioenergy Task 38 - Greenhouse Gas Balances of Biomass and Bioenergy Systems • Biomass-based climate change mitigation through renewable energy systems (Biomitre)

6. The Process Chain: Sorghum life cycle inputs : McClaren et al 2002

7. Ghg’s of interest: • Carbon dioxide, CO2 • Methane, CH4 ** • Nitrous oxide, N2O ** • Criteria: • Simplicity • Traceability • Scientific credibility • Political acceptability • Substitution approach: • Products, co-products, wastes credits subtracted from process chain • Complex, time consuming, complete • Allocation approach: • by mass • by energy content * • by market value • Simpler, practical, some gaps • N.b. High probable error levels in estimates: Crutzen paper ca. three-fold increase in nitrogen component of ghg contribution over Ipcc 2007 estimate. • Data requirements: • Net energy ratio • Net energy requirement • Net energy per hectare • Net ghg emission factor • Unit energy credit • Total energy credit • Energy credit per hectare • Unit ghg credit • Total ghg credit • Ghg credit per hectare

8. System process components for biofuel production from rape oilseed Biomitre, 2004

9. Greenhouse gas balances Spitzer, 2006

10. Fritsche, 2007

11. Some key challenges • Favourable policy and legislative frameworks • Estimating national bioenergy potentials • Coordinating investment flows – industrial bioenergy v.a.v. small-scale • Best practices, certification - flexible, cost effective, does not penalize small-scale producers • Developing countries competing in international markets and with technological change • First versus second generation technologies

12. Some questions for sorghum potential • Is sorghum already being grown? How does it fit in the food scheme? • Does biofuel processing infrastructure exist? • Sorghum for export or domestic consumption? • If export, can producers comply? Best practices, certification • If export, can the country compete? Regional or global markets • How fast do producers take up technology?

13. Thank you