China Set to Triple Its Ethanol Production Capacity: Government Researcher
by Hallie Gu and Dominique Patton (Reuters) China is set to more than triple its ethanol production capacity by 2020, a government researcher said on Tuesday, with demand for the commodity expected to surge as the country shifts toward cleaner fuels.
The nation is currently building or seeking approval for new ethanol plants with capacity to produce 6.6 million tonnes of the biofuel a year, Dou Kejun, a researcher at the China National Renewable Energy Centre, told an industry event in the country’s south.
…
Growth in Chinese production would take the country “quite close” to the volumes needed by 2020, Dou told Reuters on the sidelines of the event. Although he added that the process was “dynamic” and subject to change.
Other attendees at the event said China would need to import significant volumes from overseas suppliers such as the United States and Brazil.
…
Of those, corn-based ethanol capacity is around 1.45 million tonnes, while facilities relying on cassava make up 1.7 million tonnes.
China also uses wheat, sorghum and rice to make the biofuel in some parts of the country.
There is also around 7 million tonnes of idle capacity at alcohol facilities, part of which could be turned into fuel ethanol production capacity, Feng (Feng Wensheng, a manager at major producer Henan Tianguan Group Co Ltd.) said. READ MORE
China Aims To Boost Ethanol Production (OilPrice.com)
