China's Cities to Promote Use of Ethanol Gasoline in 2018 to Fight Air Pollution
Dou Shicong
DATE:  Dec 08 2017
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
China's Cities to Promote Use of Ethanol Gasoline in 2018 to Fight Air Pollution China's Cities to Promote Use of Ethanol Gasoline in 2018 to Fight Air Pollution

(Yicai Global) Dec. 8 -- East China's Shandong province and the northern city of Tianjin have unveiled specific implementation plans for promoting ethanol gasoline use. The local governments in both areas will stop selling traditional gasoline from next year. The move is in line with new air pollution control policies issued by China's central government last September.

Shandong province has taken the lead to promote ethanol gasoline in eight cities this year and will check the results by the end of March next year, the Securities Daily reported. Starting from 2020, it will add nine more cities to the pilot range. The local government expects the provincial ethanol gasoline consumption to reach 10.65 tons annually.

Tianjin will sell ethanol gasoline in the city from Oct. 1, 2018, the report said. A total of 2.54 million tons of gasoline were sold last year, it said, adding 10 percent of ethanol will be added into the traditional gasoline to make the ethanol gasoline. Based on this calculation, the city needs 250,000 tons of ethanol per year.

The peripheral areas of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region which suffer from ozone pollution are expected to follow suit. Under the central government's new anti-pollution policies, the polluted areas in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will promote ethanol gasoline in 2018 and achieve full availability across the region by 2019. Ethanol gasoline usage will spread across all regions of China by 2020, the new policy projects.

However, there are still gaps in the supply of fuel ethanol, industry analysts point out. If ethanol gasoline is promoted all across China by 2020, it could lead to an annual fuel ethanol shortage of 8 million tons. As a result, China's fuel ethanol market could further expand, and the government may encourage more imports by lowering tariffs, they predict.

Follow Yicai Global on
Keywords:   Tianjin,Shandong,Ethanol Gasoline,Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei