Iraq Has A Date With Biofuel Production

June 7, 2010 - PRLog -- Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, has announced approval for an agricultural project that will develop biofuel from rotting dates.
According to Reuters, “Iraq has the world's third largest oil reserves but its crumbling farm sector, which has suffered from decades of sanctions, isolation and war, is the country's leading employer.”
The dates-to-biofuel program, being developed by an unnamed company based in the United Arab Emirates, is seen as a way to encourage growth in the farming sector which Iraqi officials hope will ultimately lead to greater agricultural productivity.
Iraqi officials also hope it will reinvigorate their once vibrant date export industry. The country, which produced 900,000 tons of dates prior to the U.S. invasion, now produces only 350,000 tons. By giving farmers a way to profit from dates that are starting to rot, they help to minimize the risk.
And the oil rich country plans to use the biofuel domestically at first, with the possibility of future export.
In another oil exporting country, Oman, Oman Green Energy Company (OGEC), has been testing the development of biofuel from the date palm for some years. In the case of OGEC, they claim to use cellulosic biomass extracted from around the date palms and in a way that doesn’t interfere with the date crop.
In a 2008 study, desert dates were also found to be an excellent source of biofuel stock, especially for arid regions. The study focused particularly on the Arava desert in Israel and its potential to develop cost-effective biodiesel production.
While biodiesel production in oil poor Israel makes sense, biofuels might be seen as a gamble in a country like Oman which exports 700,000 barrels of oil a day, and derives 90% of its export revenue from oil.  Likewise a biofuel program in Iraq, where the country’s financial stability has been put in the hands of its oil industry, may seem out of place. And yet, biofuels are seen as delivering additional value. In Iraq, they may be the key to bringing back a devastated agricultural sector.

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