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(NYASATIMES) Malawi government endorses use of ethanol-fuelled cars

Malawi government endorses use of ethanol-fuelled cars
By Nyasa Times
Published: November 24, 2009

Energy and Natural Resources Minister, Grain Malunga, has disclosed that government has endorsed the use of ethanol-fuelled cars. The Minister said the move is part of the ongoing drive to find alternative and cheap sources of fuel to replace imported fossil fuels.

“The issue is reducing the ratio of patrol to ethanol from 90 to 10 [percent] to; 80 to 20 [percent]. So the research has been done as successful which means that now instead of using 90 percent patrol we will be using 80 percent patrol and then 20 percent will be ethanol,” said Malunga on Capital Radio.

“What it means is that there will be a further 10 percent reduction in importation of fuel in exchange to ethanol which is produced locally,” the minister said, pointing out that the development will wean the country off its fossil fuel dependency and better harness Malawi’s ethanol industry.

The country successfully completed a project to test the practicability of using locally produced sugarcane ethanol instead of petrol or diesel to power vehicles. The experiment was under- taken in two phases by the Malawi government and privately owned Ethanol Company of Malawi (Ethco), with the first phase involving the testing of a modified Mitsubishi Pajero and the second a flexi-fuel vehicle that Ethco imported from Brazil.

“The tests showed that the performance of the ethanol-powered vehicle is good, just like that of a petrol-powered vehicle. The difference is that ethanol consumption for a similar distance is [slightly] more than the fuel consumption of a petrol vehicle. This is understandable, as petrol is more ambient than ethanol, [but] this should be compensated by the pricing structure,” said Daniel Liwimbi former Ethco boss now deputy minister of Energy .

Malawi produces cane ethanol at two plants: the Ethco-owned Dwangwa plant, in the central region, and another one at Nchalo, in the southern region, which is owned by local firm Press Cane. The two are adjacent to sugar cane plantations and sugar factories owned by multinational sugar group Illovo.

Each of the two plants has a design capacity of 16-million liters of ethanol but the two factories are producing below capacity because of the low availability of molasses, a by-product of sugar production.

Press Cane and Ethco produce 18-million liters of ethanol a year, which, Liwimbi says, is not enough to meet local demand, should Malawi start using ethanol to power vehicles.

Malawi launched the ethanol-driven vehicle research project following a Cabinet directive which came about as a result of unstable prices of fossil fuels on the world market.

Malunga said Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) should ensure that benefits are going to consumers or social development by improving social economic status of the country. (Additional reporting by Marcel Chimwala, Creamer Media)

Labels: BIOFUELS, ETHANOL

posted by MrK @ 12:57 PM