Fueling Cassava's Popularity

A breakout crop of the 21st century is poised to attract even more attention as a raw material for refining into biofuel.

Cassava has irrupted into the first decade of the third millennium as a crop that can contribute to agroindustrial and small-farmer development in the tropics. One of the most recent advances - using cassava to produce fuel alcohol - has opened multiple opportunities, not least for small farmers. The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT by its Spanish acronym) in Colombia is among those beginning to play an active role in this development.

The approach promoted by CIAT, in alliance with the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium to Support Cassava Research and Development (CLAYUCA by its Spanish acronym) and the Dutch company Diligent Energy Systems, facilitates the participation of small farmers in the production of cassava as the raw material and in pre-processing activities. These activities see cassava roots initially transformed into ethanol at 50% concentration, which is taken to a central distillery to produce fuel alcohol (ethanol at 99.5% concentration).

Artisan-scale processing plants can easily be set up in many rural communities because of their low cost. In addition, processing by-products can be used as animal feed and fertilizer.

To facilitate the implementation of this decentralized approach, CIAT and CLAYUCA received financial support from Colombia's Ministry of Agriculture to establish in the second half of 2007 a pilot plant for processing ethanol from cassava, sweetpotato and other sources of biomass. The plant's processing capacity will be 800 liters per day.

This endeavor aims to position cassava as an agricultural option that can help Colombian farmers improve their income and quality of life. It should also help validate sustainable and competitive options of energy and agroindustrial development currently implemented by the Colombian government. The experience can serve as a model for other countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America that seek the sustainable development of bioenergy programs using traditional crops.

The project is not limited to biofuel production. It also aims to solve the problem of contamination from solid and liquid wastes.

The North American companies Feeco, Encap and Soil Net LLC (all from Wisconsin), the sugar refineries Mayagüez, Providencia and Riopaila, Colombia's largest paper manufacturer (Propal), CLAYUCA and CIAT recently formed an alliance to transform the contaminating residues resulting from the manufacture of ethanol (sugar industry effluents, also known as vinasse) into competitive products, thus helping to reduce the adverse environmental impact of these residues on the region's soil and water resources.

With the signing of this agreement, Colombia will have, by 2008, its first pilot factory that uses sugar industry effluents to produce fertilizers and animal feed products. The plant will be located at CIAT headquarters.

"We are working to generate an innovative, decentralized process, where small farmers are given more participation and where production is oriented toward a bio-refinery concept, in which the potential of crops such as cassava and sweetpotato is tapped to obtain biofuels, convert wastes into fertilizers and animal feed products, and transform liquid effluents into biogas," says Bernardo Ospina, executive director of CLAYUCA.

For more information, contact Ospina at b.ospina@cgiar.org or call +57 (2) 44 50 000 (ext. 3157 or 3159) in Cali, Colombia.