Report of ECA-MRAG mission on bio-diesel production in Zimbabwe

Abstract

In landlocked country where it is viable, biodiesel production thus offers prospects of substantial foreign exchange savings not only from reduced diesel fuel import volume but also due to reduced requirements of foreign exchange for overland transportation. It would in addition help curtail the rate of build-up of fossil C02 in the global atmosphere, by reducing the volume of diesel fuel consumption, as C02 is re-absorbed from the atmosphere during the growth of the biodiesel crop. Because of such considerations, consensus emerged in the in-house discussions that ECA respond to both the Uganda and Zimbabwe requests with proposals of multi-disciplinary missions to provide assistance with formulation of comprehensive terms of reference of feasibility studies of biodiesel production and utilization.