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China Finds Way to use Cereal Surplus
Can corn and wheat turn into clean fuel for automobiles? The answer is yes. As of July 1, more than 20 gas stations in central China's Henan Province will take the lead to provide gasoline combined with ethanol, which comes from cereals, to consumers.
The move marks the start of an ambitious plan by the Chinese government to spread the use of ethanol gasoline throughout the country with the hopes of finding a way to use all of the country' s large amounts of cereals.
A survey shows that the to make) 1 ton of ethanol would cost 3 tons of cereal and is based on a mixing ratio of 1:10 with gasoline and in the end it can finally produce 10 tons of ethanol gasoline. China's annual gasoline consumption now stands at about 36 million tons.
So far, two production projects in Henan and Heilongjiang provinces, both famous cereal production bases in China, have been put into operation. Another one is located in northeast China's Jilin Province and will be finished by the end of next year.
According to estimates, these production bases would consume hundreds of tons of cereal a year, an effective way of putting redundant cereal to effective use.
Thanks to its successful agricultural policy in the past two decades, China has bid farewell to a historic problem of cereal shortage and reached an annual output of 500 million tons.
However, due to the slow development of in-depth processing, a large amount of cereal has remained in stock instead of going to the market.
The construction of warehouses has cost the government a striking 40 billion yuan, let alone a necessary annual allowance of 10 billion yuan.
Under such a heavy financial burden, there is a plan in the country for popularizing the use of ethanol gasoline.
An official with the State Development Planning Commission believes the popular use of ethanol gasoline will help create a long-term and stable cereal consumption market and provide a reliable means for the government to regulate the market.
"For the sake of our farming brothers, please use ethanol gasoline." -- which is the slogan used in some foreign countries when they first promoted the use of this new type of fuel. Today, it becomes quite applicable in China, a country where 900 million people are engaged in cereal production.
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