Bumpy ride for Zimbabwe’s Green Fuel
12 November, 2011 20:12
SIMPLICIUS CHIRINDA
Business Times
Zimbabwean motorists started filling their vehicles with an ethanol fuel
blend from Green Fuel’s Chisumbanje ethanol plant this week.
But villagers living near the plant in Chisumbanje want to shut the
operation down, accusing the owners of taking away their farming land.
Green Fuel spokesman Lilian Muwungani said the new fuel had gone on sale at
selected filling stations.
“We are proud to announce that today we sold our first litre of blend from
our ethanol in the capital,” said Muwungani.
“Our blend product, E10, is at FMI service stations nationwide.
“We are very excited to have come from the construction phases of the
project to actual product merchandising against all odds and warnings from
prophets of doom.
“Our story represents the triumph of hope over reality,” said Muwungani.
The building of the Chisumbanje ethanol plant faced resistance from pressure
groups in Chipinge, who claimed that it took away people’s land.
The plant is on a 40000ha site, much of which was unused when construction
began.
Green Fuel cleared the land and built irrigation canals.
A snap street survey found that motorists were asking about the fuel blend
at BP and Shell service stations around Harare.
At Bond Service Station, a petrol attendant said 10 motorists had bought the
fuel. Others could be seen purchasing it at Matlock BP Shell service station
in Mbare.
The Green Fuel ethanol blend is selling for $1.36 a litre, while the normal
petrol goes for $1.45 a litre.
The ethanol blend petrol is a mixture of 10% ethanol and 90% ordinary
petrol.
Ethanol is clean-burning and its use means less air pollution and a
greenhouse gas emission reduction of between 60% and 90%, according to the
International Energy Agency.
Green Fuel is Africa’s first large-scale ethanol factory, making anhydrous
ethanol from sugar cane.
Sugar-cane ethanol is one of the most successful biofuels to date, offering
the greatest reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and an efficient
production process.
The company said its ethanol blend will help create a green revolution in
Zimbabwe, driving economic growth and reducing the country’s carbon
footprint and its fuel bill.
However, the Platform for Youth Development (PYD), a Chisumbanje
community-based organisation, said the plant has badly disrupted the lives
of people in the area.
The PYD’s Claris Madhuku said: “There is nothing about development in this.
“It is a pure capital- generation venture disregarding people’s lives and we
shall continue fighting it.”