Published: 18 September 2013

Zimbabwe is working on introducing mandatory blending of petrol to the levels of E20 (a mixture of 80% petrol and 20% anhydrous ethanol), President Robert Mugabe has said.

Speaking at the official opening of the eighth parliament of Zimbabwe on Tuesday, Mugabe said plans are afoot to introduce mandatory blending of E20.

"Such a move will ensure fuel efficiency and, more importantly, the project will trigger incremental job creation," said the president.

He added that the move would also guarantee decent livelihoods for local communities and other citizens.

Zimbabwe has already implemented mandatory blending of E5, while E85 is being sold but is not mandatory.

Last week Green Fuel, Zimbabwe’s ethanol-producing company, was reported to be pleading with the government to consider introducing at least 20% mandatory ethanol-petrol blending to maximise national benefits from the US$600m investment at Chisumbanje, and in the process guarantee viability of ethanol production.

The ethanol plant has the capacity to process 374 000 litres of ethanol daily, yet it is selling between 60 000 and 70 000 litres a day, leaving surplus ethanol accumulating at an average rate of 300 000 litres daily.

According to a report by the Minnesota Center for Automotive Research, fuel pumps showed significantly less wear when tested with E20 than with petrol.

The study concluded that overall, E20 did not have any greater negative effects than petrol or E10 on the fuel pumps tested. It also showed there were no substantial differences in the performance of the sending units tested in the three different fuels.
- fin24

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