China’s Guangxi Zhuang province to switch to cassava ethanol blend in bid to halt oil price shocks, improve emissions

In China, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region will convert to a cassava-based ethanol blend as of April, in an attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and imported fuel costs, while avoiding the use of grains for ethanol feedstocks. The region produces 200,000 tonnes of ethanol annually at a plant in Behai City.

In recent weeks, the province of Guangxi said that a cassava (tapioca) shortage may lead it to curtail ethanol production projections for this year, and have cast doubt on the province’s plans to double production by 2010. Provincial officials originally set a production goal of 1 million tons of ethanol but is looking now at a best-case scenario of 200,000 tonnes.

Overall, Chinese food prices have soared 60 percent on selected goods, prompting fears that food riots, similar to those which precipitated the 1989 uprising, may occur in major Chinese cities. Strong curbs on production of fuels from food crops is expected, to reduce pressure on prices, as the country emerges from an extreme cold crisis, on top of major crop failures. Tariffs of up to 25 percent have been placed on export of key biofuel feedstocks.

Last year, China produced 264 million gallons of ethanol, but recently imposed a moratorium on corn ethanol production because of the impact on corn prices, focusing investment on cassava, sorghum and sugarcane.

China established an E10 mandate in 2002 for nine provinces, but has not extended the mandate, in part because of shortages of feedstocks.

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