China "Feeds" Automobiles With Corn

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, December 07, 2001

China "Feeds" Automobiles With Corn

China now has not only enough grain to feed its huge population, but also a surplus which can be used to make "food" for motor vehicles. In recent years, China has tried to expand the use of new energy resources as substitutes for traditional ones, including turning coal into oil, for both economic and environmental purposes.

Alcohol fuel from corn for motor vehicles

Thanks to years of bumper grain harvests, China now has not only enough grain to feed its huge population, but also a surplus which can be used to make "food" for motor vehicles.

One example is a project to produce alcohol fuel from corn, the biggest of its kind in China, which started recently in Jilin City in northeast China's Jilin Province.

Jilin City officials say that upon its completion in 2003, the project is expected to need 1.8 million tons of corn to produce 600,000 tons of alcohol fuel annually.

"It is of great significance that China's automobiles are beginning to 'burn' corn", says Liu Tienan, an official with the State Development Planning Commission, adding "popular use of alcohol fuel helps save energy resources of China, uses out-dated grains and is good for the environment."

China tries to expand new energy resources

Statistics show that at present, the per capita quota of petroleum resources in China is only one-tenth of the world's average. China began to import petroleum in 1993, and it is predicted that the imports will reach 250 million tons, or 50 percent of the country's total petroleum consumption by the year 2020.

In recent years, China has tried to expand the use of new energy resources as substitutes for traditional ones, including turning coal into oil, for both economic and environmental purposes.

According to calculations, China's consumption of gasoline will drop by 16.4 million tons annually if gasoline is mixed with alcohol fuel at a 10:1 ratio.

Insiders say, assuming all China's automobiles were to use alcohol fuel, the amount of corn needed to produce this fuel would only account for 8 percent of the country's total corn output, posing no threat to the grain required for food in China, which has the largest population in the world.

China is trying to expand use of new energy resources

China has tried to expand use of new energy resources to substitute traditional ones in recent years for both economic and environmental purposes.

The Jilin project will consist of nine production facilities including an alcohol production line, a refined corn oil production workshop and an enzyme workshop. It is jointly funded by the China National Petroleum Corporation, Jilin Grain (Group) Co. Ltd. and the China Resources (Holdings) Company Ltd.

Apart from alcohol fuel, the project can also produce a series of downstream products such as 45,000 tons of corn oil, 175,000 cubic meters of hollow bricks and 183,000 tons of materials for road building.

Grain alcohol can be used as a kind of new automobile fuel by mixing it with gasoline. This kind of mixture can help reduce air pollution remarkably and has been widely used in some American and European countries for nearly 20 years.

The development of alcohol fuel is a new industry in China and so far, only a few provinces, including Heilongjiang and Jilin, have been chosen by the State to carry out pilot production.

China Finds Way to use Cereal Surplus