Biofuels and Fiji’s roadmap to energy self-sufficiency

Singh, Anirudh (2012) Biofuels and Fiji’s roadmap to energy self-sufficiency. Biofuels, 3 (3). pp. 269-284. ISSN 1759-7269

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Abstract

The Pacific Island Countries (PICs) face a number of energy challenges, arising mainly from the lack of indigenous fossil fuel sources and their remoteness. Biofuels provide one of the possible solutions. This paper considers the current status of the biofuels industry in Fiji and stresses that the main motivation for biofuels development in the Pacific must remain the substitution of expensive fossil fuel imports and not the reduction of carbon emissions. It identifies coconut oil and ethanol as the two most important biofuels that can be produced in Fiji today, and outlines some of the socio-economic factors that influence the production of these biofuels. The paper considers Fiji’s prospects of replacing its fossil fuel imports by biofuel, and concludes that in the case of transportation, Fiji is well-placed to replace all its diesel engine needs by the biofuel blend B5 and its petrol engine needs by the ethanol blend E10. Indeed, with a little more attention to feedstock production, Fiji could become a net exporter of these commodities in the not-too-distant-future.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences Q Science > Q Science (General) T Technology > TD Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering
Divisions:	Faculty of Science, Technology and Environment (FSTE) > School of Engineering and Physics
Depositing User:	Anirudh Singh
Date Deposited:	29 Jan 2013 04:19
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2017 03:49
URI:	http://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/5505

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