Zim vehicles could run on 100% ethanol

Published: 27 March 2014

Zimbabwe could become the world's first country to have vehicles that run entirely on ethanol, parliamentarians heard today.

Green Fuel general manager Graeme Smith told the parliamentary portfolio committee on Youth Indigenisation and Economic Development that increased production of ethanol would make this possible.

"Zimbabwe could become the world's first country to run entirely on ethanol and be independent of the need to import fuel. This is in respect of petrol or gasoline not diesel," he said.

He said the company is currently processing 250 000 to 300 000 litres of ethanol per day, in excess of 20 percent of Zimbabwe's fuel needs. With more investment, green fuel's production could reach 1,5 billion litres of ethanol per year by 2020.

Smith added that the country could become the hub of bio-fuel development in Africa exporting to the region and beyond if the production targets were met as non-ethanol producing companies will import from Zimbabwe.

He said Brazil was already using 100 percent ethanol in almost 30 percent of its petrol run vehicles. He said Brazil was using hydrous ethanol which has water content in it meaning that their vehicles cannot run on ethanol and petrol, they can only run on one of these.

"Our solution is that we are producing anhydrous ethanol which has low water content in it and allows an engine to run on either ethanol and petrol or any blend of these products," he said.

Zimbabweans have not been keen to accept the use of ethanol blended petrol as they have reported that ethanol can negatively affect their vehicles' engine.

Smith however said ethanol is safe to use in any vehicle as his company's vehicles have been running on 100 percent ethanol for the past five years without experiencing any problems as was the case in Brazil.
- BH24