Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
Karl James, a director of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, giving his speech at the opening ceremony of the PCJ Energy Efficiency Unit exhibition at the PCJ Auditorium yesterday. - RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
THE SUGAR industry can help reduce Jamaica's fuel bill by up to $71 million per year, says Karl James of the Jamaica Cane Products Sales Limited and a director of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ).
Sugar cane is the most efficient converter of energy, said Mr. James, while speaking at the opening of the PCJ's Energy Conservation Month exhibit at its Trafalgar Road headquarters. Ethanol, distilled from sugar cane, can be used in car fuel while waste cane, known as bagasse, can be burnt to generate electricity to supply to the national grid.
Co-generation (generating electricity as part of sugar production), said Mr. James, would likely be a key plank of the Government's soon-to-be-announced decision on the way forward for the industry.
REDUCE OUR DEPENDENCY
He said the sector "... was strategically placed to help reduce our dependency on oil ... We expect that, before too long, the announcement that we are waiting for will include energy as part of the way forward for the sugar industry."
He stressed, however, that the sugar industry needed replanting to produce 3.5 tonnes of cane annually to generate sufficient ethanol and bagasse. However, last year's crop of 1.4 million tonnes, compared to 4.9 million in 1976, "... doesn't give the kind of encouragement for growing cane for energy," said Mr. James.
Approximately one million tonnes of cane would be needed to produce the 15 million gallons of ethanol needed as 10 per cent of the country's gasolene.
As for ethanol, Mr. James said that Jamaica already had five distilleries to produce rum and the same technology could be applied to producing ethanol. Further capacity, he added, could be handled by the Petrojam ethanol refinery.
Part of the funding for the upgrades, said Mr. James, would come from the European Union (EU) as part of the compensation that accompanies the 39 per cent cut in the price the EU pays for African, Caribbean and Pacific-produced sugar cane.
"We are also looking at outside people, the Brazilians, for example, and I am entertaining interest from the Colombians and from Venezuela also," said Mr. James.
