The concept of renewable energy has really taken momentum all around the world as the African nation Ethiopia has made moves to initiate ventures on bio-diesel production from castor oil.The prime objective is to reduce the energy burden of the nation since experts claim that Ethiopia allocates 90% of its foreign revenue to fossil fuel import and hence focus has been applied to exploit the renewable resources for ensuring the sustainability in nation’s economy.
Among the leading Ethiopian energy investors,Global Energy Ethiopia(GEE) has started its operation on renewable energy since 2007 by pumping US$ 20 million into castor and jatropha seed farming and processing business.According to sources,GEE firm has an opportunity to process 40,000 tonnes of vegetable oil in its investment on concerned bioenergy crops from 30,000 hectares of leased land.Besides GEE, other firms namely Eco Energy has also entered into bio-energy sector with collaborations from abroad.
According to Ethiopian Investment Agency(EIA),the potential of 25 million hectares of land suited for bio-diesel farming when tapped completely,Ethiopia becomes one of the highest producers of bio-diesel with an estimated capacity of 20 million liters of crude vegetable oil.
Reports such as this are motivating because the nations that have been torn by the economic crisis,civil wars and political instabilities, would have a tremendous scope to lift their socio-economic and environmental consciousness at the competitive International stage.
For reference: http://energybusinessdaily.com/renewables/ethiopia-sets-its-sights-on-biodiesel/
Some interesting links
My interest is using castor oil in the separation of ethyl alcohol from water. Are you aware of any work being done on this?
i am from ethiopia and i have a BSC in chemistry and chemical engeneering.
i worked alot of projecte in renwable energy. at this time i also conduct aresearch on castor oil for the production of biodiseel in addis ababa institute of technology and ishow that good promissing for ethiopia for using of this oil as abiodisel.