The government could save up to Rs 1.6 billion by promoting bio-diesel technology, while blending of ethanol could further save $500 million. This was stated by Zaka Ashraf, president ZTBL, while presiding over a meeting here on Thursday.
"President Zardari is showing keen interest in alternate source of energy to minimise the heavy import bill of $11 billion per year," Zaka opined. Technical sub-committee on blending of ethanol for motor vehicle and bio-fuel technology held its meeting to discuss the technical aspects of this vital bio-fuel alternate to gasoline.
Ethanol being cheaper than gasoline is a renewable fuel as we could make it again and again without depleting valuable resources in the earth, Zaka said, adding that it supports local farmers as it is available in local markets.
Ethanol is a renewable energy source commonly used to power automobiles and derived from sugarcane molasses and other crops. It is easy to manufacture and could be made from very common crops such as sugarcane.
He said that Pakistan being an agricultural country could produce additional 160,000 tons fuel without losing additional dollars on import.
Earlier, Zaka has constituted a high power committee on use of ethanol as alternate fuel to meet the concerns of critical energy crises. The meeting was also attended by member Planning Commission, additional secretary, Ministry of Industries Production and Special Initiatives, director general, Environment Board Islamabad and others.
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