31/10/2006  (Financial Express)  -  The gathering clouds in the political horizon of the world are worrisome for the people of Bangladesh at large considering the oil crisis. The recent oil crunch of the country demonstrates that at present, the prudent policy is to explore for the alternative that can trim down dependency on oil import. Besides, the fuel consumed in the country is hazardous enough for the environment which further implies the necessity of introducing environment-friendly fuel.
There is no denying that the issue of fuel price has never been as important as it has been in the recent period for the government as well as the entire nation. The government was in a strenuous situation about oil import predicament emanating from the soaring prices of the commodity in the international market and unprecedented liquidity problem faced by the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), the state-owned oil marketing company. Besides, the public sector commercial banks, which very often have to comply with unjust and unfair directives of the government, have experienced a grave liquidity quandary because of financing the BPC oil import bills.
The government has been in a dilemma about dealing with the oil pricing issue. It has been shouldered a huge financial burden to keep the price at a tolerable level for the consumers considering the interest of the private and commercial consumers, though the multilateral donor bodies have advised the government to readjust oil price. Moreover, the country is dealing with enormous uncertainty about the critical matter of oil import at a time when the base of the global political turbulence is exposed to intensified state in the area close to the source of oil and its supply line.
Leaving the socio-economic or political aspects, the contemporarily used fuel leads also to severe environmental quandary. Emissions from vehicles include different noxious gases such as carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, hydrocarbons, and particles. For every litre of petrol used, 2.3 kg of carbon dioxide considering the main greenhouse gas is emitted into the atmosphere and the average passenger vehicle emits about four tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. The gases used in car air-conditioning systems, although small in volume, make a comparatively large greenhouse impact. This consequence contributes Bangladesh significantly to suffer for its low lying position by green house effect. However, through introducing CNG, the country initiated a step towards clean environment in a cheaper way.
At present, Bangladesh imports 3.7 million tonnes of fuel annually. The fuel-wise trend scenarios show that the consumption of every fuel is also increasing with time except coal and residual oil whose consumption is decreasing. Therefore, the present circumstance implies that it is high time to rummage around the alternative approach in order to decrease the dependency on fuel import. Bio-fuel can be a feasible alternative in this regard. It is a completely renewable, domestic, environment fuel that enhances the economy and energy independence of a nation.
One practical example of bio-fuel is E85 that is the term for motor fuel blends of 85 per cent ethanol and just 15 per cent gasoline. Besides its superior performance characteristics, it has the highest oxygen content of any transportation fuel available nowadays, making it burn cleaner than gasoline. Fewer exhaust emissions result in reduced production of smog and a decline in respiratory illness allied with poor air quality. E85 also reduces greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide, as much as thirty-nine to forty-six per cent compared to gasoline. Although carbon dioxide is released during ethanol production and combustion, it is recaptured as a nutrient to the crops that are used in its production. Unlike fossil fuel combustion, that unlocks carbon that has been stored for millions of years, use of ethanol results in low increases to the carbon cycle. Since the main ingredient of E85 is ethanol, which is non-toxic, water soluble and biodegradable, E85 is simply a better fuel for the world around us.
Not only does using E85 help reduce American dependence on foreign oil, but because Ethanol is produced from crops grown in the U.S., it can also help stabilize commodity prices. In the near future, a wide range of waste products will be used to produce ethanol, further developing the national energy independence. Ethanol production is estimated to increase net farm income more than $4.5 billion, boosts employment by 200,000 jobs and improves the balance of trade by over $2.0 billion.
Another prominent example is that Brazil has managed to be largely independent of the green house effect of the world through an "energy revolution". By law, all Brazilian petrol must be at least twenty-five per cent ethanol. By 2007, almost all cars available in Brazil ought to be able to run on hundred per cent ethanol. Bio-diesel, a renewable fuel, is seen as a way to make Brazil, and indeed the world, less dependent on oil. Its manufacture provides jobs for the poverty-stricken interior regions of the country necessary to make biofuels from sugar and maize. The world will watch as Brazil embraces the renewable energy source and eagerly attempts to prove both its feasibility and benefits.
Bangladesh can similarly initiate bio-fuel such as biodiesel that are renewable and can be made from agricultural products, like palm oil, soya-beans, sugarcane and maize and can then be mixed at up to thirty per cent with petroleum-based products such as diesel. Bio-diesel production is a way of making this country less dependent on oil, a fuel that may eventually come to an end. The environment of the country can be rescued in deed. The economy can be boost up through less import. The government can also view bio-fuel as a way of helping to haul rural parts of the country out of grinding poverty as a result of creating numerous labor-intensive agriculture based jobs for the production process. Agriculture-based industry and other government industries can get profit from this clean fuel.
Considering the socio-economic, political and environmental aspects of the country, the need is the creation of conditions for introducing bio-fuel. In short, the country must be pragmatic in crafting the introducing process of bio-fuel.