Biofuel and the Caribbean

I turned the television on last night, and there was some HBO special on biofuel going on. I was doing some of the manual stuff with the quotes alternating with reading a book, and had it in the background.

I know a bit about biofuel, but not too much - Willy Smith wrote a bit about it, and we spoke of it a bit in Panama City, Panama last year. His posts on Backyard Biodiesel (see also the alternative energy section) are well worth reading, and are something I'd like to experiment with in the future. My renewable energy related experiments/projects have been more directly related to generating electricity (like solar energy), but I recognize the usefulness of biofuels. So this was distilling in the background of my mind all day. Less pollution. More mileage. Lower cost.

Connect the dots.

Trinidad and Tobago

In Trinidad and Tobago, it seems that the entire Trinidad and Tobago budget is based on oil, pumped out of the ground, not unlike our neighbours in Venezuala (and probably why the U.S. Navy ship is cruising around with recent events). Trinidad used to produce a lot of sugar - from sugar cane. And sugar cane is used to make rum, which from what I understand Trinidad can't export because of some trade agreements with people who use the rum for mixing. But rum is a form of alcohol. Ethanol is alcohol. Trinidad and Tobago has both oil and the ability to produce alcohol.

In the background, the dots connected. There was a brief 'Eureka' that I almost completely missed while I was reading a book and working on the site. Imagine. Trinidad and Tobago could revitalize the sugar cane fields and produce ethanol to aid in the fueling of vehicles. Other things could be used to create other biofuels. It's... an astonishing thought. And it's so far off the beaten path that it's unlikely to catch on until the U.S. does it. It's sad, actually, because getting the jump on biofuels could be the next big thing.

Guyana, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba.

But when it comes to space to grow things, Guyana can fit the rest of the Caribbean into it's land mass - and with only a very small percentage of the Caribbean's population. Flooded crops can produce ethanol as well. And the larger islands of Hispanola (Dominican Republic and Haiti, as well as Cuba, the same could be done...

I wouldn't be too surprised if Venezuala was already moving in that direction. They are boosting oil production for China, and did get information from China on bioengineered crops. Better crops. More fuel production. Sell it to China... but China can create it's own biofuel if it desires.

Small Islands

Small islands could probably produce enough ethanol and other biofuels to at least defray the costs of fuel.

Overall, I'm surprised there isn't more buzz about biofuel in the Caribbean. It could be the step ahead that the region, including Latin America, deserves. Or we could sit on our hands and import it from other countries in the next 5-10 years... it all depends on how far the region, including CARICOM, is willing to look ahead.