The government had set up the plant at Shree Ram Sugar Mills at Gadura, Rautahat district in 2004, but the facility has remained idle since the completion of a trail operation the same year. [break]
On November 10, 2003, the government decided to compulsorily mix 10 percent ethanol in petrol used by public transport vehicles by January 2004, as the blend makes emissions less harmful and more eco-friendly.
The government set up a reservoir of liquid ethanol and installed an ethanol pump at Amlekhgunj. But due to technical hurdles and internal rifts, the decision on the ethanol-petrol mix is yet to get implement, informed Mukunda Prasad Ghimire, chief of Nepal Oil Corporation at Amlekhgunj.
According to studies, the petrol-ethanol mix can reduce carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emission by 35-55 percent. As the mixture has a positive impact on environment and is cheap, numerous countries including India, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Canada, Latvia, Ethiopia and Thailand have made the blending compulsory for public vehicles. Likewise, studies have also shown that the blend can produce more energy.
Each month, around 10,800,000 liters of petrol is consumed in Nepal. “Considering this, we estimated that around 180,000 liters of liquid ethanol will be consumed per month,” said Ghimire.
Likewise, Samir Karna, assistance accounts officer at Shree Ram Sugar Mills, said that with the government yet to bring the ethanol plant into operation, the country is incurring a revenue loss of millions of rupees every month.
Ethanol gas is produced from molasses. And as the ethanol produced in the country has not been mixed with petrol, it has reportedly not received a reasonable price. Some nine sugar mills are in operation in Nepal and the rectified spirit extracted from the molasses is used for making expensive alcohol.
“The only ethanol plant of the country has not come into operation due to political instability and it is on the verge of shutdown,” said an official at the sugar mill, seeking anonymity.
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