Ethiopia saves 20.5 mln. USD through blending ethanol with benzene

The Ministry of Water and Energy said it has managed to save over 20.5 million US dollars over the past three years through blending ethanol with benzene.

The Ministry told ENA that the Fincha and Metehara sugar factories started to produce ethanol from the byproducts of sugar in 2001 EC.

Over 32.860 million liters of ethanol was produced during the stated period.

The country has given prime attention to develop alternative energy sources in order to save the huge amount of hard currency spent on oil, it said.

The country has started to provided a 5 percent ethanol and 95 percent benzene blended (technically known as E5) for the market since 2009.

The country was able to blend over 13 million liters of ethanol blended oil (E5) and as a result saved over USD10 million in two years (2009-2011).

As of March 2011, the country increased the ethanol content gasoline to 10 percent and Oil Libya has awarded the task of blending the 10 percent ethanol-Benzene oil.

The country has a plan to top up ethanol blended oil to the local market to reach E25 (a 25 percent ethanol content blended in Benzene and bio-diesel).

The country has set target to produce 180 liters of ethanol after five years.

SOURCE: newsdire