China car maker achieves breakthrough on hydrous ethanol; alternative to ethanol costs 60 percent less to produce

In China, Dongfeng Motor has successfully demonstrated the use of hydrous ethanol in its automobiles. The company says that use of hydrous ethanol, containing 65 percent ethanol, would save 60 percent of the energy need to create pure ethanol, by eliminating the dehydration phase.

The use of hydrous ethanol, requires an adaptive device for engines only. Dongfeng said that it would set up an ethanol car production plant by the end of 2008.

China has been urgently seeking ways to reduce oil dependency through the development of ethanol-related capacity, but without depending on food stocks such as corn. Due to domestic food production shortfalls, China recently announced abandonment of ethanol projects that use foodstocks, excepting existing plants and those already under construction. China is the third-largest ethanol producer, behind Brazil and the US.

Last week, COFCO, a leading food producer, opened the country’s first non-grain ethanol plant in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Capacity, production cost and feedstocks were not disclosed. COFCO, operator of an existing 200,000 ton ethanol plant in Guangxi, had been seeking feedstocks from Vietnam and Thailand as grain availability was curtailed throughout China due to food shortages.The Ministry of Finance recently announced policies to promote the production of biofuels from non-food feedstocks. The subsidies will be flexible, and tied to the price of crude oil. Farmers will receive up to $878 per acre planted with forest products for biofuels, and up to $791 per acre for crops planted for biofuels.

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