Federal Industries, Production and Special Initiatives Minister Jehangir Khan Tareen has revised the government pledge to devise and implement 'National Fuel Ethanol Program' (NFEP) to increase energy capacity and reduce pollution. He stated this while chairing a high-level meeting here on Tuesday, said a press release. Earlier, Badar Hashmi, a consultant of the programme, in his presentation, highlighted the importance of ethanol for industries. He informed the minister that there are 71 sugar mills with total existing working capacity of 5.3 million tones per annum, and 170 operating days with average recovery of 8.7 percent.
He also said that production of molasses remained between 1.3 million tones and 2.1 million tones during last 10 years. There was a great need to use sugarcane by-products like molasses for producing ethanol, he added.
He said that ethanol is important for industries like paint, medicines, and explosives and most important of all, its use as fuel increases engine efficiency and reduces pollution. He also suggested that ethanol blending with gasoline nearly 5 percent should be experimented on a selective basis, especially of public awareness programme.
Molasses-Ethanol-Gasoline price relationship was one of the fundamental points in ensuring sustainability of this programme, he added. He demanded government financial and non-financial incentives to make this programme a success.
The Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA), the oil marketing companies, and ministries of petroleum, agriculture, environment and industries supported the programme, and assured their full support, he added. Later, he set up a 'Task Force on Ethanol', comprising a consultant, a representative from oil marketing companies and representatives from petroleum, environment, agriculture and P&D ministries in order to come up with a comprehensive plan.-PR
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