Have you ever heard about Sustainable Development Africa? It provides wind, biomass, waste management including biodiesel feasibility studies and environmental audits. It sets up, manages, and supports projects in Clean Development (CDM) especially for developing countries. Under Sustainable Development Projects, this organization helps establish Biodiesel refineries throughout Africa.
Basic Utility Vehicles (BUVs) are biodiesel ready! Biodiesel is a clean burning alternative fuel to petroleum diesel, and is produced from natural, renewable, agricultural resources such as soybeans or recycled cooking oil. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.
BUV Biodiesel Facts:
- The biodiesel engine in the BUV uses less fuel than the gas engine.
- The BUV uses approximately ¼ of the fuel of a pick-up in off-road conditions.
- The biodiesel BUV gets over 50 mpg (the gas engine gets 30+ mpg)
- The advantage for these developing countries and could lead to the creation of more jobs ground pressure of a BUV is less than HALF of a standard pick-up truck.
- The BUV is friendly to both the right and left side drive.
Biodiesel is especially effective in African countries because of their access to jatropha oil. The jatropha plant yields more than four times as much fuel per hectare as the soybean plant, and yields more than ten times that of corn. The oil is a fuel which burns with a clear smoke-free flame. This oil once processed (through esterification) into bio-diesel is increasingly being used as a fuel by transport and energy companies. The by-products are pressed cake (a good organic fertilizer), oil, and it also contains an effective insecticide.
It grows in many parts of Ghana and other parts of Africa. It is rugged in nature and can survive with minimum inputs and is easy to propagate. Jatropha grows wild in many areas of Africa and even thrives on poor soil. Depending on soil quality and rainfall, a yield of between 0.5 tons and 6 tons of seed can be achieved, when the plants approach maturity, 6 years after planting. Biodiesel BUV can be a vehicle for sustainable development in many African countries like Ghana or Liberia!
