Zimbabwe needs mandatory blending policies for green fuels

Zimbabwe needs mandatory blending policies for green fuels

iGreenwriter

GOVERNMENT should strengthen its involvement in the growth of the ethanol industryby promoting the use of green fuels, and help save money on costly fuel imports.

To achieve this, Government could start by imposing laws that compel all fuel dealers to blend locally produced ethanol with petrol, said Ms Lillian Muungani, spokesperson for Green Fuels, the biggest ethanolproducing firm south of the Sahara.

“The creation of a viable bio-fuel industry in Zimbabwe could result in the country being liquid fuel sufficient in eight years while exporting the balance to allow for foreign currency savings and generation,” she said.

“A viable ethanol industry translates to the growth of rural agriculture, as cane farmers supply feedstock to the mills; jobs are created and preserved, as artisans find employment at the plant; imports are curbed, effectively ensuring that cash from fuel sales is kept within the local economy.”

MsMuungani said Government should ensure that local fuel prices were stabilised through addressing supply side constraints, which could be heavily augmented by ethanol.

The biggest advantage for using ethanol is its wholesale environmental benefits. As a clean burning and renewable fuel, ethanol is non-toxic and 100 percent bio-degradable.

Compared to other fossil fuels such as oil or coal, ethanol reduces the production of greenhouse gases by more than 90 percent.

Greenhouse emissions have been proven to be the major catalyst behind climate change and global warming.

However, there has been a lot of confusion among Zimbabwe’s motorists and fuel dealers over the use of ethanol, as a motor fuel. Other motorists are shunning blended fuel saying it is inefficient while some fuel dealers have refused to blend with petrol, currently mixed at a rate of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent petrol. That rate could reach upto 85 percent ethanol.

The confusion has thrown the future of ethanol into doubt, and caused anxiety at Green Fuels, the country’s main ethanol producer, which has remained stuck with millions of litres of unused product.

Yet, through ethanol, Zimbabwe could significantly cut its US$2 billion yearly fuel import bill.

The Green Fuels project, situated at Chisumbanje southeast of Zimbabwe, was established at a cost of US$600 million over the past three years, and targets to produce at least 100 million litres of ethanol per year.

The project has created over 4 500 jobs and empowered local village farmers by improving access to irrigation and contracting them to produce sugar cane for the plant.

Ethanol is a renewable, clean-burning, high-octane motor fuel that is produced by the fermentation of plant sugars. The key term here is renewable because it addresses the issue of sustainability.

Ethanol fuel can be hydrous (wet) or anhydrous (dry). Hydrous ethanol, which is what Zimbabwe had in the eighties, is the most concentrated grade of ethanol that can be produced by simple distillation without the further dehydration step necessary to produce anhydrous ethanol.

Hydrous ethanol contains 4 percent water and 96 percent ethanol. Green Fuel produces anhydrous ethanol – an ethyl alcohol that is free of water, has a purity of at least 99.6 percent, and is produced using the latest distillation technology.

Anhydrous ethanol is the highest quality ethanol available for fuel, with excellent performance benefits.   The ‘fuel grade’ ethanol used in Europe is anhydrous and is usually blended with lower percentages of petrol, as it mixes better than hydrous ethanol.

Ethanol has been used by humans since pre-historic times, mainly as the intoxicating ingredient in alcoholic beverages.  Ethanol was first prepared synthetically in 1826.

It has been used as lamp fuel in the United States as early as 1840.  From 1908 onward, Ford Model T automobiles were adapted to run on ethanol.