Journal of Fundamentals of Renewable Energy and Applications
Open Access
ISSN: 2090-4541
+44 1300 500008
ISSN: 2090-4541
+44 1300 500008
Gary S Vermaak
Harambe Sustainability Ventures, South Africa
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Fundam Renewable Energy Appl
In developed countries, government subsidies and incentives have done much to make bioenergy production, and in particular biofuels, viable. Developing countries can ill afford to subsidize bioenergy production, especially given the need to feed their own population first and foremost. When one considers that it is in many cases more profitable to produce processed foodstuffs than bioenergy, it is clear that bioenergy projects could be destroying value and having a negative impact on food production. Feed, food and fuel programs provide a way of meeting the demand for food in developing countries while contributing to the supply of electricity, fuels and gas in rural areas. The key is in producing and beneficiating crops at source while using the residues and other waste streams to produce the bioenergy (fuels). Thermal energy produced from the energy plants provides much need cooling, heating and power for the processing of agricultural products, thus creating a closed loop in these projects. The objective of this paper is to encourage the development of agro-processing centers in the rural areas to produce not only food, but also competitively priced electricity, fuels and gas to bring about economic growth and uplift rural communities.