Malawi must act fast on the Ethanol Propelled Vehicle Project

As part of the ongoing Ethanol Propelled Vehicle Project, the Malawi government launched the first flex-fuel vehicle on Thursday, 4 September, 2007. This vehicle has been imported by the Ethanol Company Limited (Ethco) from Brazil. Flex-fuel cars can can use pure ethanol, pure petrol or any combination of the two fuels in a single tank.They were introduced to the Brazilian automobile market in 2003.

According to newspaper reports, Malawi is the first country in Africa to import a flex-vehicle from Brazil. On the launch of this vehicle, Professor Matthews Chikaonda, who heads the Press Corporation Limited, which is a parent company to Ethco said

Malawians seem to be afraid to be the first.We were the first to come up with the cash budget but we dropped it.Uganda picked up the idea and did a brilliant job on it and perfected it.

I concur with Professor Chikaonda.Now that Malawi is the first on this one, she must act fast or else other African countries will pick it up just like the Ugandans did with the cash budget. If I am not mistaken, the flex-vehicle bought at a cost of MK5 Million. This excludes duties and taxes because they were waived. If these cars can be imported in bulk, the cost per car will surely go down. I am sure some Malawians can buy these cars and save on their fuel costs. The Malawi government must forge cooperation agreements with the Brazilians now and learn their ethanol story.Countries such as Ecuador and India have already signed such agreements with Brazil. Why are we delaying? We do not have to be too futuristic in our thinking because the ethanol technology has been tested and proved already.I am glad because the Brazilian ambassador designate to Malawi, Mr Raul Taunay also attended the launch of the flex-vehicle and in his remarks he said

Brazil is using ethanol successfully to the extent that Brazilian filling stations have three pumps; thus for petrol, diesel and ethanol

Mr Raul Taunay will be more than eager to help establish connections between Malawi and the various players in the Ethanol propepelled vehicle industry in Brazil. That will surely be a big achievement in his diplomatic assignment to Malawi because it will open up yet another market for the Brazilian automobile manufacturers.We have known the Brazilians as soccer stars but with these developments, we will, now, know them in a new way.

The Ethanol Propelled Vehicle Project in Malawi

In my last post, I presented five facts which justify Malawi's work on the Ethanol Propelled Vehicle Project. Now, I will present the current status of the project and the way forward.

Before going any further, let me point out that the goal of this project is to compare the performance of a vehicle running on 100% ethanol with a petrol driven one. Therefore, an old petrol vehicle was used for the tests. During the road tests, engine temperature was normal, torque was high such that the vehicle was driven on high gear (5th) most of the times.The vehicle was test driven at 110km/hour.Fuel consumption was high due to the high speed and old age of the car. The rate of fuel consumption was 8km per litre compared to 10-15km per litre for petrol on new vehicles of the type at normal speed.The acceleration was lower than petrol.All the components of the fuel system are so far intact and do not show any sign of damage due to ethanol use.The results show that it is possible to use 100% ethanol to drive petrol vehicles.

As part of the way forward, the project will continue to generate data on engine performance of the ethanol driven vehicle and to make comparison with the use of petrol.Such data shall help in the cost-benefit analyzes exercise. The team will continue to test and check on the long-term effects (if any) of ethanol on the fuel system of vehicles. The team will further gather data on the performance of a flex vehicle and build capacity for Malawians to maintain ethanol or flex vehicles.

I asked the office of the Director of Science and Technology a few questions on this project. The response was well detailed and very encouraging. As a blogger, I was very excited with this development. The response goes like this:

• Question 1: In your current research efforts, besides the Lilongwe Technical College, do you collaborate with other organizations or institutions locally and internationally?

• Answer : We collaborate with Ethanol Company(Ethco) at Dwangwa, Prescane Company in Chikwawa (Locally). These are basically ethanol producing companies and have assisted with free Ethanol, most of which has come from Ethco at Dwangwa. Ethco has imported a Flex vehicle for further experiments (I will give more details on this to your other question below, about re-inventing the wheel). We have other institutions and organizations which we call 'partners' such as Stansfield Motors and CFAO Malawi, where partnership has been established. There are other partners and institutions with which partnership is sought. Originally, there was a suggestion to include the Polytechnic but there were some logistical and financial constraints. As the project comes up with more results, we shall expand and include all other relevant institutions.We should be holding a National Stakeholder Consultative Workshop sometime this year and we shall invite all stakeholders to the meeting.

• Question 2:I have been reading that ethanol propelled vehicles have been used in Brazil for quite sometime. In light of this, are we not re-inventing the wheel? Is it not possible for us just to send some people to Brazil for training on Ethanol propelled vehicles and see how we can implement the same in Malawi?

• Answer: It is not easy to send people to Brazil for training. We allocated some funds during the last financial year (2006/07) for an officer from Lilongwe Technical College to go to Brazil, but it did not materialize, because he could not get the invitation letter for him to process the Visa. CFAO as our partner assisted a lot to get the invitations, they even send e-mail messages in Portuguese, the official language in Brazil, but it did not work! We are still exploring ways of getting around this problem.Secondly, in Brazil, they are manufacturing Flex vehicles which can use pure ethanol, pure petrol or any combination of the two fuels in a single tank. A Flex has been imported by Ethco for further experiments in Malawi. However,you can agree with me that this technology will be far above the reach of most middle Malawians. The experiments we are conducting now are targeting the Biwi-Biwi, or Ndirande-Mlanga road -Red cross type of people. We believe that this group consumes a lot of fuel and could help to reduce the petrol demand hence imports if they turned ethanol. Thank you for your enquiry and interest in the Ethanol driven vehicle project, we hope that every Malawian stand to benefit if the results are commercialized in the future.

My views
I must start by congratulating the Department of Science and Technology, team at Lilongwe Technical College and the Ethanol Company of Malawi for their different roles in this project. They have set the ball rolling. I hope other stakeholders will come in especially with the upcoming National Stakeholder Consultative Workshop.

From what I have read, preliminary results of this research have shown that some parts need to be fitted to the vehicle so that it can run on 100% ethanol. Automobile companies may come in handy on this issue because they are the ones involved in the manufacturing and repairing of these vehicles .Therefore, for this project to be a success, automobile companies such as Stansfield Motors , CFAO, Toyota Malawi and others must take part in a more active role.

For this project to be a success, I am of the view that Malawi must establish international collaboration especially with the Brazilians who are already manufacturing flex vehicles. I greatly appreciate the efforts being done by CFAO in trying to establish a link with the Brazilians. If you know any organizations in Brazil, India, USA or any other country that either do research on or manufacture ethanol propelled vehicles, feel free to forward this post to them so that I can link them to their Malawian counterparts. Everyone can read this post because language is no longer a barrier these days. You can translate this post to ten other major languages of the world.

Justification for the Ethanol Propelled Vehicle Project in Malawi

Towards the end of last month, I read an interesting press release by the Government of Malawi's Department of Science and Technology. This Department is conducting research on the use of ethanol as an alternative fuel for petrol driven motor vehicles. This project is being done in collaboration with Lilongwe Technical College and Ethanol Company of Malawi. The Ethanol Company is providing all the ethanol that is being used for the experiments free of charge and has imported a flex vehicle from Brazil for further experiments. A flex vehicle uses petrol an ethanol in any mixture in a single tank.


The Malawi Government raises a number of exciting facts to justify this project. I have paraphrased these facts here and there for my online community. These facts are as follows:

1. The availability of excess ethanol: The current use of ethanol in Malawi is about 50% for blending with petrol, the rest is used for industrial purposes and export. Therefore it would not be a mistake to use some of the excess ethanol as fuel in motor vehicles more especially because the export price is lower than the local price. It has also been pointed out that the sugarcane fields at Dwangwa, Nchalo and Kasinthula can be expanded to produce more sugar that will result in more molasses for more ethanol. More sugarcane fields can be openned quite easily in other places. As you can see from the map above, Malawi has plenty of water which can be used for irrigation throughout the year!
   
2. Implication on fuel imports: Volumes of fuel imports into Malawi show that the government bill on fuel import is increasing every year. Records show that the price of petrol has been increasing yearly from MK1.8 billion (about US$12.86Million) in the year 2000 to around MK5 billion (about US$35.7 Million) in 2005. A combined import bill with diesel is around MK15 billion (about US$107 Million) per year. With these statistics, it is easy to see that continued escalation of fuel prices is a major cause of the cost-push inflation in Malawi. This is not sustainable for the economy of the country. Therefore the use of ethanol as an alternative fuel will help the country to save the much-needed forex for other vital activities in the country.
3. Conservation of the environment: It is a well known fact that the burning of fossil fuels such petrol, diesel and coal releases carbon dioxide, which is contributing to global warming. Fossil fuels also release oxides of sulphur and nitrogen which contribute to the formation of acid rain. The burning of ethanol does not release extra oxides of nitrogen and sulphur, thus its use is environmentally friendly.
4. Depletion of fossil petroleum reserves: It is a well known fact that the world reserves of fossil fuels are being depleted at a fast rate due to increased consumption of fuels as a result of national economies globally. Therefore, Malawi finds it safe to start using alternative sources of energy before the global reserves are depleted. Furthermore, ethanol is a renewable energy source because sugarcanes are replanted after the area is harvested.
5. Poverty alleviation:As expected, the use of ethanol for fuel will increase demand for sugarcane. Expanded sugarcane farming will offer employment opportunities to Malawians. Other Malawians will get additional employment in the sugar as well as the ethanol processing and marketing chain. This fact coupled with fact # 2 will make a huge positive impact on Malawi's economy. Malawi may finally find her way out of poverty!
   

In the next posting, I will explain the current state of the project and the way forward.