Sugar Cane Will Be the Major Source For Costa Rica’s New Alternative Fuel.

The entire Central American country of Costa Rica, known for its diverse wildlife and strikingly peaceful landscape, is doing all that it can to help preserve the beauty for the generations [and tourists] to come. President Oscar Arias has vowed to have the whole country Carbon free by 2011 and Costa Rican citizens are doing everything they can to help achieve the rather ambitious goal. The newest endeavor involves a country-wide move to BioFuels.

For a little over two years both Puntarenas and Guanacaste provinces have provided the public of Costa Rica with a choice between alternative and fossil fuels. Buyers could choose to purchase ‘regular’ gasoline with a small percentage of BioFuel mixed in at the regular market price, or pay extra to purchase ‘Super’ which was void of the alternative substitute. It appears that in the future alternative fuel known as “BioFuel” will now be the only option at the tanks.

It is predicted that later this month a executive decree will be signed to have all gasoline stations in the entire country from the Pacific Coast to the Caribbean selling only gasoline containing a percentage of “biocombustible” biofuels. The program would go into effect in October of this year as the whole country will have picked up the same practices as the other two coastal provinces.

The Vice Minister of Energy, Julio Matamoros announced that Costa Rica will only sell ethanol and biodiesel-mixed gasoline throughout the country. Both regular and super gasoline will be comprised of regular gasoline and a mixture stemming from sugar cane, which seems to be more than appropriate since Costa Rica has an abundance of the plant within its borders.

The new and innovative fuel will be comprised of ethanol or anhydrous alcohol derived from the sugar cane and will make up 7.5% of all super and regular gasoline. Diesel fuel will contain anywhere from 2-5% of a biodiesel concoction extracted from palm oil. Palm Oil is another precious commodity Costa Rica has quite a bit of as you would know if you’ve traveled towards the Pacific Coast town of Manuel Antonio passing acres upon acres of palm plantations used to produce palm oil.

Beginning in March of 2007, over 700 hectares that were once dedicated to rice farming in Costa Rica were converted to grow sugar cane. Most of the farmers and producers have decided to make the change in order to increase profits and gain greater market security. Once the Central American Free Trade Agreement (Cafta) was ratified in the same year, local farmers began to fear that competition would be fierce and profits low.

Sugar cane is easier to produce since production costs are less expensive than rice, there are fewer threats of disease, and the crop is much more resistant to changes in the climate. Now that there is a higher demand for it, with the move to alternative fuel, the farmers can rest assured that the move was a positive one.

The switch will force Costa Rica’s oil refinery monopoly Recope to shell out a pretty penny, to the tune of $1.1 million dollars, for equipment to successfully mix the ethanol into the gasoline. It is expected that the company will begin to acquire the equipment between now an October.

The question on everyone’s minds is whether this undoubtedly environmentally beneficial biofuel will decrease fuel costs in Costa Rica. Unfortunately, Matamoros has not announced how gas price will be affected, however, one hopes that the prices will drop significantly as gas prices have broken records this year stretching everyone’s purse strings a bit too far.

The change will hopefully be finalized this month and a large campaign will be launched to educate the public about alternative fuels in order to help prevent opposition. As the trial run in the Northwest proved, the hybrid fuel will not reduce the amount of power in vehicles, nor will it damage fuel pumps, which are a few of the concerns that will be addressed during the campaign.

Although the change only replaces a small percentage of petroleum in gas content and “Biofuel” has not completely ruled out the use of fossil fuels in Costa Rica, it is one more step the Costa Rica is making towards becoming a carbon free nation. One can only hope that other larger countries will follow in its footsteps.

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Filed under: Costa Rica News on July 11th, 2008