Introduction
Liquid biofuels are fuels which can be sourced from a variety of ecological options. Prominent among them being biodegradable municipal waste, agricultural product, biodegradable industrial waste and forest products.
Biodiesel and bioethanol are the main types of liquid biofuel available in the market. Taken together they account for over 90% of liquid biofuel usage globally. It may be noted that liquid biofuels are mostly used in the transport sector.
Liquid Biofuel Production facts
Bioethanol is sourced from various agricultural products (mainly cereal crops and starchy crops). The prominent crops in usage here are the following.
» Sugarcane
» Sorghum
» Corn
» Wheat
» Beets
For biodiesel production the following varieties of trees and oil crops find use.
» Rapeseed
» Coconut
» Soy
» Jatropha
» Sunflower
» Palm
In recent times the development of a 'second-generation' liquid biofuel have begun. This lignocellulosic bioethanol is produced from forestry products like energy grasses and short rotation coppices.
On the other hand new biodiesel technologies extract diesel fuels from straw and wood.
The global liquid biofuel industry is experiencing an augmentation in it scale of operation. An increasing number of countries are adopting its production world wide.
In 2005 liquid biofuel production worldwide amounted to 0.8 EJ.
USA, EU and Brazil have been the major liquid biofuel producers worldwide. However, Malaysia and Indonesia are slowly catching up with the leading nations.
The areas capable of rendering a potentially large-scale supply of liquid biofuel are listed below.
» Sub-Saharan Africa
» Caribbean
» East Asia
» Latin America
Gender Equity Issues in liquid biofuel production
Liquid biofuel production in developing nations is being aided by the establishment of big scale feedstock plantations for biofuel. Along with socio-econoic benefits like increased employment generation they also entail some context-specific risk factors. Prominent among them is the gender equity issue.
The increasing global demand for biofuels have different gender specific socio-economic and environmental effects in different developing nations.
Males and females in the biofuel producing nations may face a differential risk matrix comprising of different issues described below.
» Access and control of various productive resources including land
» Participation level in various socioeconomic activities and in decision-making
» Access to employment opportunities
» Food security
It may be noted that the gender specific impact of biofuel (liquid) production depends on the particular technology in vogue and the existing socio-economic condition of a region.
But some global trends have been noticed in this regard.
Firstly, big scale plantations for liquid biofuels are highly resource intensive. Small time farmers in particular women farmers traditionally have limited access to these resources. Some of the inputs required are land, pesticides, water and chemical fertilizers.
Landownership is particularly low among the female cultivators. In Cameroon landownership percentage of women is lower than 10. Comparable figures for Brazil and Peru are 11 percent and 13 percent respectively. A similar picture is portrayed in Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya and other Sub-Saharan countries in Africa (as per data UNICEF, 2007 data).
In addition women normally lack in access to various formal credit schemes mostly due to the inability to offer land as a collateral. In Nigeria for example three percent women received bank credit as against 15 percent for men. The collateral demanded of women was also higher as per a 1994 study.
In that way liquid biofuel production may lead to women cultivators' socio-economic marginalization.
Marginal lands previously used as CPRs (common property resources) in India are being gobbled up for biofuel production depriving the rural poor of a source of livelihood.
Among other gender specific issues of liquid biofuel production unequal employment opportunity, food insecurity, discriminatory working conditions find special mention.