Togo: Exiled Ex-President Patasse Said Capable of Producing Bio- Diesel

Text of report by Luc Abaki entitled “Patasse becomes a green” published by Togolese government website republicoftogo.com on 13 March

The ex-Central African Republic president, Ange Felix Patasse, (1993-2003), who has since been in exile in Togo, is henceforth involving himself in bio-diesel. Engineer agronomist by training, the septuagenarian, who has been a widower since December 2007, decided to make Togo take advantage of his expertise in agriculture.

“I want to exploit the Togolese lands to produce bio-gas, rural bio-electricity and bio-diesel from a plant called penicetum pulpurium” he explained during an interview granted to republicoftogo.com in his home at the “OAU Township” in Lome.

Like an expert accountant, the white bearded man devotes the most part of his time to add figures, draw spreadsheets and regularly consult the geographical map of Togo to precisely define the various outlines of his project.

The garden of his villa is covered with elephant grass, the famous penicetum pulpurium the secret of which he said he is the only person in the world to know.

“I have been working on this plant since 1986 and I saw that it has immense potentials. It has especially the advantage of growing everywhere and to develop without any special conditions”, he explained to us . Then he explained the various stages of his project.

“I already visited a lot of areas capable of being developed for doing integrated projects for vegetal production from penicetum pulpurium, which will be processed on the biotechnological level to gather bio-gas through a process of fermenting it.

Encouraging farmers

From the gathered bio-gas the use could be oriented to the production of bio-gas in the gaseous state for domestic use, in the production of watery methane which could be used on the one hand to produce electricity and on the other fuel for engines.

He gave figures: one cubic metre of watery methane gives 2kw/h of energy potential, one tonne of digestive organic matter (penicetum) gives between 600 and 700 cubic metres of raw bio-gas, including 60 per cent of methane and 40 per cent of carbon dioxide. He is for the time being reluctant to give the exact cost of the project due to the fluctuation of the dollar and the appreciation of the euro.

Ange Felix Patasse dreamed of a Togo which is independent and self-sufficient in the matter of domestic gas, bio-electricity and bio-diesel and promised that within the next six and nine months, to produce liquefied carbon dioxide and liquid methane as soon as he would have got the results from experimental phase of the methane digester which he is on the way of acquiring.

The ex-president has already 400,000 hectares of developed land. He hoped that every family in the rural area will have at least 10 hectares of land half of which will be devoted to the cultivation of penicetum and the other half to food crop. “I want to make the family the first unit for development and encourage the return to the land” he explained.

He suggested forming farmers’ cooperatives to make it possible for the farmers to have access to loans. This project is ambitious and expensive but it is especially dear to the heart of this man who henceforth considers himself as a Togolese through adoption. He is counting on a partnership with international fund donors and of course on the support of the Togolese authorities.

Originally published by republicoftogo.com website, Lome, in French 13 Mar 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Africa. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.