Biofuels
How to unlock the
potential of papyrus
wetlands in Africa
By Michael Jones and Matthew Saunders
M
ost households in tropical sub-Saharan Africa - over80% - use some form of biomass, such as charcoal or
wood as their primary source of energy, mainly for cooking. They source this biofuel from scrublands,
savannahs and forests.
Wood is the main source of
domestic
energy
for
rural
populations while charcoal is
the major source in urban areas.
But the capacity of biomass to
provide the energy requirements
of sub-Saharan tropical Africa
is declining. This is problematic
because the numbers that
depend on it are growing as
populations increase.
By 2040 there will be an estimated
40% increase in the demand for
biofuels. This will increase the
pressure on forest biomass stocks
in particular. It has long been
recognised that this supply of
wood is not sustainable and its
continued use is leading to the
destruction of natural woodlands
and scrublands and a catastrophic
loss of biodiversity. It has been
predicted that the current rate
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of fuel wood consumption could
exhaust resources within the
next decade or two so there’s an
urgent need to find alternative
sources of biofuel.
One of the, as yet, untapped
sources of biofuel is the prolific
vegetation that grows in wetlands
which cover approximately 6% of
sub-Saharan Africa. Many of the
wetlands are covered by papyrus
vegetation that’s been shown to
have record-breaking growth
rates. Harvesting this papyrus as
a renewable source of energy has
the potential to alleviate pressures
on native forest ecosystems which
currently act as the main source of
fuel sub-Saharan Africa.
Some plants are better for
biofuel use than others
The ideal plant used for fuel grows
fast, can be harvested easily and
then will regrow quickly. Fast
growth depends on using the light
available for photosynthesis as
efficiently as possible and some
plants are 30-40% more efficient
than others. .. We now know that
one of these ‘super-efficient’ plants
is papyrus which was extensively
cultivated in Africa throughout
history, most famously to make
paper in ancient Egypt.
Today, papyrus has largely
disappeared from Egypt but it
remains the dominant plant in
wetlands in the Nile basin. These
wetlands stretch from the source of
the White Nile in Lake Victoria and
passes through Uganda, South
Sudan, and Sudan into Egypt.
Papyrus grows quickly and its high
biomass can be put to a number of
uses. It is usually harvested by hand
and stacked for partial air drying
before it is used. It’s then used to
make furniture, mats and baskets.
But currently no market for its use
as biofuel has been developed.
There are a number of reasons for
this, the most significant being that
papyrus needs to be converted
into a suitable combustible form
before it can be used as a biofuel.
Papyrus stems aren’t dense
enough to burn directly in stoves
so they need to be densified or
converted into charcoal.
Trials to compress the papyrus
into briquettes have been carried
out in Rwanda. The briquettes
were manufactured in a single
piston press as a long cylinder
with a diameter of 6 cm. A pilot
factory was established near