Sugar Firms to Make Fuel for Cars

Kampala — Uganda's sugar industry plans to invest $100 million in ethanol production within two years if the Government puts the policy on fuel blending in place, an industry executive said.

Richard Orr, chairman of the Uganda Sugar Cane Technologists' Association (USCTA), told Reuters in an interview that they were pressing the Government to pass legislation that would boost investment in ethanol production in East Africa's third largest economy.

"We're discussing with the Government to put in place a policy to require petroleum companies to mix their petrol with ethanol. That would guarantee market, so that when we make this investment, we're sure to get our money back," he said.

"Ultimately, investments will depend on each individual sugar producer, but we're estimating about $100 million to be able to produce 60,000 litres of ethanol a day."

Orr said if the Government gave adequate incentives quickly, the industry was capable of installing equipment and starting production within two years.

Uganda has three major sugar plants and the industry produced a combined annual total of about 112,000 tones of molasses, a by-product used to make ethanol, a USCTA report released in March said.

source: allAfrica