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Posted on  

March 8, 2001

China's Jilin to Invest $387 Mln in Ethanol Project by 2002

China's northeast Jilin province will invest 3.2 billion yuan ($387 million) in a project to make fuel from alcohol made with corn that will be completed by the end of next year, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Construction of a plant to make 800,000 metric tons of fuel alcohol, or ethanol, will begin in May, the report said. The project will produce alcohol with a purity rate of 99.5 percent or greater which can be mixed with gasoline at a ratio of one-to- nine, which is estimated to reduce air pollution emissions by more than 25 percent, the report said.

The project will consume several million tons of corn a year, which will stabilize the price of corn, increase local farmers' incomes and reduce crude oil imports and air pollution, the report said. Jilin, located in China's corn belt, has had an oversupply of corn in recent years, the report said.

China's crude oil imports nearly doubled to 70.27 million metric tons in 2000, and the country hopes alternative fuels will reduce reliance on imports. Analysts, though, say the food needs of China's growing population, which is already the world's largest, will make using corn to make ethanol an unrealistic option.

China's population is forecast to rise 27 percent by 2030 to 1.6 billion, while rising per capita consumption could lift grain demand as much as 47 percent to 720 million tons, according to official forecasts.  

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