Proceedings World Bioenergy 2010

Southern or Northern Pipelines, could help spread
awareness and educate villagers about the benefits of
Biogas, as it is directly responsible for the distribution of
natural gas.
Consultants can also be hired in order to learn from
expertise of the ones who have been successful at Biogas
deployments. Working with non-profit organizations
such as SNV, which has had immense success in Asia,
will be necessary. The Indian Government, which has
deployed community biogas plants on a large scale, and
has had public-private partnership program in place since
a couple of years, can also be asked for support [15].
However a major hindrance to such a system would
be the issue of availability of suitable land. Even though
it might be leased from a private landholder, or provided
by the government, it would definitely slow the process
as land ownership can be a serious issue in the rural area.
A short term disruption of availability of fertilizer in a
community may also arise until slurry can be used. A
long term disadvantage of such a system is that it can
eventually lead to a higher market price of manure, which
is widely used as fertilizer. Another problem in the long
run could be animals that are acutely malnourished, as
they might be fed to produce manure rather than quality
meat and milk, however this might already be the case, as
manure can be used as fertilizer or sold in the market.
Of course such a system is for domestic use only,
and Natural gas for transportation will require a different
model than this, characterized by a distribution channel
that connects the rural and urban areas of the country. On
the other hand, gas for industry too will require a
different model.
5.2 Possible ethanol fuel Public-private partnership for
use in transport
The cost of producing ethanol fuel is still high,
therefore the best way to produce it would be to take the
path the government has been trying to attempt for a
couple of years. Pakistan has a massive sugar refining
industry that uses sugar cane to make refined sugar.
Many of these are already making ethanol, and they are
most likely to already have the existing scale, financial
strength, and the cost base, to produce ethanol in large
quantities, on their existing sugar mills [9]. The
government would have to work with these Sugar Mill
owners and give them incentives to start producing fuel
grade ethanol from Sugar cane. One of the incentives that
can be given to these Sugar Mill owners would be a fixed
price of ethanol, independent of market price. On top of
that, simply finding a steady buyer would be a great
incentive as well, as it would help reduce overall risk and
uncertainty. The role of foreign private and public sector
would be to support in terms of expertise, technology
transfers and of course, bringing in funds. The help of
experts from Brazil and the US, which are by far leaders
in terms of technology and prevalence of Bio-ethanol,
will be necessary. Work has already begun on such a
business model, however it is currently at the testing
stage and only the government owned ‘Pakistan State
Oil’ is allowed to sell it. It is currently being supplied in
the south of the country.
It must be remembered that this model needs to be
further expanded to include all Major Oil Marketing
Companies and perhaps also encourage mill owners to
use multiple feed stocks, such as Maize or Sweet
Sorghum as well, rather than just sugar cane, in order
ease the supply pressures that will be put on sugar cane.
74 world bioenergy 2010
Therefore the most important part of the government
would be to control the prices of Sugar Cane and Sugar
Cane products, and therefore prices in the market, which
would be highly open to exploitation by distributors to
produce artificial shortages in such a condition. Hence
apparent that the possible setbacks of this model is that if
it is not implemented correctly with proper policing,
sugar supplies can fall (genuinely and artificially) as
resources are diverted to making ethanol, ultimately
resulting in high prices (and rising imports) of Sugar (or
any other crop). Ideally, a non food source should be
used as feedstock; however that will require heavy
investments of time and effort before a complete industry
can be established, as such crops usually have little
market value and therefore are short in supply to begin
with.
In the end, it must be remembered that the problems
of an inattentive and negligent governance, corrupting
and misappropriation of funds is something that is likely
to continue in the current political and bureaucratic
culture in Pakistan. It is a long term challenge and needs
to be solved for any real progress, in any field. Already
Pakistan’s current energy policy is not being
implemented [5]. Also Pakistan dwells in a fragile
political system that is both corrupt and uncertain.
Usually, policies are not retained or sustained over longer
periods and successive governments. Stakeholders such
as the IMF, or Asian Development Bank, whose help
would be needed in acquiring fund and expertise, could
become tools of accountability. Also involvement of
other stake holders such as universities, domestic and
foreign private and public sector companies and nonprofit
organization, could help keep accountability, and also
make sure that policies transcend governments.
6 CONSLUSION
The energy crisis in Pakistan is deep and worsening.
By 2030, energy supply and demand gap is expected to
increase to over 140.9 MTOE i.e. 64% of the total supply
[16]. Due to Pakistan’s large agriculture base, Biomass is
one of the alternative energy solutions that can help ease
this crisis. However it cannot be done by the private or
public sectors alone, and would require help of all kinds
from foreign governments, agencies (e.g. The World
Bank or USAID), technology companies, nonprofit
organizations (such as SNV), universities and
consultancies, in order acquire the expertise and the funds
to make it all happen.
It must be remembered though that there are serious
long term issues that need to be overcome for any real
progress. One such issues is that of water stress that
Pakistan is under. Water could soon be scarce in
Pakistan, which can have a significant negative impact on
the economy in general and the agriculture sector,
including crops and livestock, in particular (1; 28; 30).
Overall, Pakistan’s culture of corruption and the
inability to implement and sustain policies with changing
governments is another major issue. can be overcome by
involving as many stakeholders a possible, including
international agencies, foreign and domestic private
companies, therefore helping put pressure on successive
governments to continue legislation and government
initiatives.
However, Bio Energy alone cannot solve Pakistan
problems. With all the issues arising from Biomass, and