Don’t let ethanol project crumble

For here was an innovative way, thanks to Greenfuel and Arda, to also reduce the fuel import bill as the ethanol from the Lowveld would be blended with imported petroleum at the ratio of 10 percent ethanol to 90 percent petrol.
Once the project was up and running, there were plans to increase this ethanol-petroleum ratio to 20 percent and experts projected that after 20 years, Zimbabwe could rely heavily on biofuel, with very minimum imports.
Blending petrol with ethanol was expected to help Zimbabwe, which imports fuel, save $200 000 daily and $72 million per year, money which could be channelled towards other needy sectors.
But reports that Greenfuel has stopped ethanol production because it has no storage for the fuel and actually has 10 million litres lying idle are disturbing, to say the least. There are also reports that fuel companies are delaying regularising processes to start blending petrol with ethanol.
It would appear there was no proper planning when this whole project, one of the biggest investments in post-independence Zimbabwe, was started.
According to Mr Basil Nyabadza, the chairman of the Agricultural Rural Development Authority (Arda) which is a partner in Greenfuel, the company is facing serious shortages of storage facilities.
“Yes, we have stopped the production of ethanol at Chisumbanje simply because we now have 10 million litres lying idle. Naturally, there is no way we can continue producing the commodity when it is not going into the market as expected. Therefore, the only sensible thing under the circumstance is to stop producing the commodity,” Mr Nyabadza told our sister paper, The Herald.
The effect of the stoppage of ethanol production is that motorists who were starting to enjoy the benefits through price reductions, will again feel the pinch. Greenfuel’s ethanol blended petrol (E10) is selling at $1,36 a litre in Harare and surrounding areas, down from the average petrol price of $1,44.
Motorists in other towns and cities throughout Zimbabwe were anxiously waiting for this fuel to reach their areas so they could also buy cheaper fuel. A reduction in the price of fuel will have ripple effects in the entire economy and Zimbabwe needs that to aid recovery.
But from what is happening, it appears there was no forward planning and consultation between the drivers of the project and fuel dealers. We wonder how Greenfuel intended to distribute its product if there was no buy-in from fuel dealers.
The fuel dealers now need to install extra tanks at their service stations to accommodate the ethanol blend. But they cannot do this overnight because there are costs involved.
In our view the other major blunder the Chisumbanje project promoters made was to concentrate the distribution of their product in Harare alone, starving other areas of the cheaper fuel.
However, this huge investment must not be allowed to crumble and in our view, Government, which last year introduced a mandatory 90 percent petrol blended to 10 percent ethanol, should intervene and order all service stations to sell ethanol blend, alongside with unleaded petrol and diesel.
Surely, memories of the bio-diesel plant in Mount Hampden, just outside Harare, which is lying idle, are still fresh in our minds and the Chisumbanje project must therefore not suffer the same fate. In fact, storage facilities at Mount Hampden could, if they are not being fully utilised, be used to store the ethanol blend that is being produced in the Lowveld as a stop-gap measure while a lasting solution is sought.
The Mount Hampden biodiesel project also needs revival if we are serious about adopting biofuels as source of energy.
Zimbabwe had done well in embracing the environment-friendly biofuels and we should certainly not look back because that is the direction that the entire world is now taking.