Guangxi stations to switch to ethanol

Service stations in southern China’s Guangxi Autonomous Region will switch to selling ethanol fuel only by the end of December, the Guangxi Development and Reform Commission (DRC) announced at a press conference. An official from Guangxi’s Ethanol Project Office said that the office began work on the plan for the switch in June. Ethanol fuel will be promoted and sold in the province starting December 15, and by December 28, gas stations will not be permitted to sell traditional gasoline, which will only be permitted for military use and in the case of a national emergency. Pan Wenfeng, the director of the Ethanol Project Office and the vice president of the Guangxi DRC, said that the Ethanol Project Office is working on a system of ethanol production, transportation and sales. It has invested 480 million yuan (US$63.9 million) to establish a plant that will produce 200,000 tons of fuel ethanol a year. Ethanol produced in Guangxi will mainly come from cassava, which is very common in the province. According to current production rates, Guangxi’s ethanol fuel will use about 1.4 million tons of cassava a year, bringing in about 465 million yuan (US$61.9 million) for local farmers annually, according to a report from Sinopec’s official news portal China Petrochemical News. Besides Guangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Henan and Anhui provinces have already made the switch to ethanol, as well as some regions in Hubei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Hebei. (September 26, 2007)