Ethanol fuel (ethyl alcohol), the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, is made from common materials, like cassava, corn… Ethanol can be mass-produced by fermentation of sugar or from cellulose (bioethanol) or by hydration of ethylene from petroleum and other sources.
Bio-Ethanol is an alternative to gasoline for flexifuel vehicles. Bio-Ethanol provides fuel for automobiles and other forms of transportation.
The process:
The basic steps for large scale production of ethanol are: microbial (yeast) fermentation of sugars, distillation, dehydration, and denaturing. Prior to fermentation, some crops require saccharification or hydrolysis of carbohydrates such as cellulose and starch into sugars. Saccharification of cellulose is called cellulolysis. Enzymes are used to convert starch into sugar.
Advantage of Bio-Ethanol:
Ethanol is a much cleaner fuel than petrol (gasoline):
- It is a renewable fuel made from plants
- It is not a fossil-fuel: manufacturing it and burning it does not increase the greenhouse effect
- It provides high octane at low cost as an alternative to harmful fuel additives
- Ethanol blends can be used in all petrol engines without modifications
- Ethanol is biodegradable without harmful effects on the environment
- It significantly reduces harmful exhaust emissions
- Ethanol's high oxygen content reduces carbon monoxide levels more than any other oxygenate: by 25-30%, according to the US EPA
- Ethanol blends dramatically reduce emissions of hydrocarbons, a major contributor to the depletion of the ozone layer
- High-level ethanol blends reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 20%
- Ethanol can reduce net carbon dioxide emissions by up to 100% on a full life-cycle basis
- High-level ethanol blends can reduce emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) by 30% or more (VOCs are major sources of ground-level ozone formation)
- As an octane enhancer, ethanol can cut emissions of cancer-causing benzene and butadiene by more than 50%
- Sulphur dioxide and Particulate Matter (PM) emissions are significantly decreased with ethanol.
1. Plantation:
The cassava plant gives the highest yield of food energy per cultivated area per day among crop plants, except possible for sugarcane. Cassava roots are very rich in starch, and contain significant amounts of calcium, phosphorus and vitamin C. With its high food potential, it had become a staple food of the native populations of Cambodia for a long time.
Cassava flour, also called tapioca flour or tapioca starch, is made from the starchy cassava root flour. Tapioca is an essentially flavorless starch ingredient, or fecular, produced from treated and dried cassava (manioc) root and used in cooking. In many countries significant research has begun to evaluate the use of cassava as an ethanol Bio-Fuel. We are developing a business plan for the cassava planting, and tapioca deep-and-refined processing.
2. Manufacture:
A south Korean company is investing $30 million in what it says will be Cambodia’s first bio-ethanol plant, which will produce the Ethanol for export.
The plant will open in October on an 11-hectare site fronting National Road 5 in Ponhea Leu district, Kandal province, said the director of MH Bio-Energy Group, Lee Dong Jun.
“It is Cambodia’s first ever bio-ethanol plant,” Lee told the Post on July 21, adding that the fossil fuel substitute would be exported to Europe, South Korea and Japan.
He said the company had decided to invest in Cambodia because it had cheap and abundant supplies of cassava, or tapioca, for producing ethanol, which is blended with petrol at a ratio of ten percent to 90 percent to produce bio-ethanol for vehicles. “It can reduce polluting emissions,” he said.
Up to 50,000 hectares of cassava will be needed to supply the plant, which will have a daily production capacity of 130 kiloliters to 300 kiloliters, or 130 tons to 300 tons, Lee said.
The company had begun a three-month production trial ahead of the plant’s launch in October and was relying on cassava bought from farmers in Kampong Cham and Battambang provinces, he said.
Lee said the company was paying the farmers between $130 and $180 a ton, but the price was expected to rise because the plant had created extra demand for cassava, which is mainly grown for export to Thailand and Vietnam.
To ensure adequate supplies, Lee said the company was also planting cassava on 8,000 hectares of land it owns in Kampong Speu province, where it employs about 10,000 people.
He said conditions in Cambodia were favorable for growing cassava and it generated better profits than rice or maize.
The yield ranged from 40 tons a hectare in Battambang and Kampong Cham to 10 tons a hectare in Kampong Speu.
Chan Tong Yves, secretary of state for the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said Cambodia harvested more than one million tons of tapioca a year, but exports to Thailand and Vietnam meant production would need to be increased to ensure adequate supply for the plant. “Therefore, the ministry is encouraging more farmers to grow it,” Chan Tong Yves said.
