Cellulosic ethanol biorefinery project in Nigeria to produce green cooking fuel

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The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) published on August 21 a request for Expression of Interests (EoIs) to provide consultancy services for the construction of a cellulosic biorefinery in Nigeria. Green Energy & Biofuels (GEB) has received a grant from the AfDB to finance the feasibility, technical, business and environmental studies as a lead up to the construction of a biorefinery in Lagos. The grant of US $580,000 was approved by the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) and it will support the scaling-up of GEB operations, particularly the waste-to-ethanol cooking fuel production and distribution in Nigeria. GEB intends to apply the grant for payments of consultancy services to be procured under this project and invites consulting firms to indicate their interest in providing those services. September 7 is the deadline to deliver the EoIs. Those interested can obtain a copy of the Terms of Reference through info@gebiofuels.com (more information in this link).

Figure 1. Bioethanol gel cooking fuel

GEB owns a proprietary technology to convert waste-based biomass into cellulosic ethanol using a combination of thermal, chemical and biochemical techniques. The feedstocks of the process are sawdust and water hyacinth. The technology was developed and is registered with the Nigeria Patent Registry in the name of SMEFunds. Most of the households in Nigeria lack access to quality cooking and lighting fuels and woodfuel is still the main source of energy for cooking and heating, contributing to increase one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. SMEFunds developed the project to produce 2G bioethanol gel cooking fuel from waste products and distribute improved clean cookstoves. Through the operation of two pilot plants, in Lagos (ethanol distillery and gel production) and Abuja (gel production plant), SMEFunds has demonstrated that biofuel for clean cookstoves is viable, sustainable and scalable. Now, they plan to scale up production and build a large biorefinery in Lagos that can produce up to 10,000 liters of ethanol per batch (22 million liters per year at maximum capacity).

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