Zimbabwe ethanol plant should put fuel on market by June

Zimbabwe should see renewable ethanol come to market in June this year.

The news comes as Green Fuels, the company setting up an ethanol plant in Zimbabwe's Lowveld region, reports delays to construction efforts at the plant.

“The key components of the plant have been sourced from Brazil and this material has been shipped to the country through Durban port facilities,” Green Fuel general manager, Graeme Smith, said in a
statement.

Unfortunately a strike by South African port authorities means delays of three months will be experienced.

“The strike action had a ripple effect on the transportation of our parts for the distillery, boiler section, as well as the mill house. At this stage it is safe to say our ethanol will be on the market by June this year,” said Smith.

Daily News reports that the company said it had now implemented a 24-hour work schedule to complete the construction of the plant. The project, which on completion and when fully operational will employ more than 10 000
people, will help reduce the price of fuel in Zimbabwe.

The by-products from the plant will be used to produce electricity, enough to light up the whole of Manicaland and also produce large quantities of stock feed.

The community is also benefitting through outgrower projects, while irrigation schemes in the area have been revived after Green Fuels repaired the Agricultural Rural Development Authority (ARDA) pumps which had not been working for more than five years.

“Eight hundred Green Fuel technicians have been working around the clock to ensure that the plant will be operating by June, ready to start processing over 5,000 hectares of sugarcane into high quality anhydrous ethanol.

“The current phase of the first plant will require 11500ha and will produce 350,000 litres a day of Ethanol for 300 days, which equates to just over a 100 million litres annually.

Phase two will progression to 150 million litres a year and 250 million litres in phase three,” said Smith.

Green Fuels, using their agricultural company, Macdom and Rating Investments, is growing cane on vast swathes of land on Chisumbanje and Middle Sabi estates under a build, operate and transfer arrangement with Arda.

ARDA will inherit everything, including state-of-the-art mechanisation at the end of the agreement whose lifespan is 20 years.

source: zddt.org