Sunday, November 26, 2006

[china and britain] green fuels the new fashion

Earlier this month, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China's largest oil producer, signed an agreement with the Sichuan provincial government to develop bio-fuel in the southwestern basin famous for its agricultural industry and natural gas reserves. They plan to produce 600,000 tons of automotive-grade ethanol made from sweet potatoes each year and 100,000 tons bio-diesel made from the seeds of jatropha curcas tree.

Soaring oil prices have encouraged world players in the energy industry, including BP, Exxon Mobile and Shell, to attach more attention to developing oil alternatives and other new energies. Sinopec is participating in a coal chemical project in Erdos, in Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region aiming for an annual production capacity of 4.2 million tons of methanol and 3 million tons of Dimethyl-ether (DME) when put into production in 2010.

At a State Council meeting on Monday, Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan said the government would raise the proportion of alternative energies in the total energy consumption and oil alternatives would receive priority. Projects for liquefied coal, bio-diesel, ethanol, solar energy, wind power, and hydropower would be encouraged, he said. [Source: Xinhua]

Well, that’s a good start, this blog thinks, perhaps naively. Any good news is better than none, after all.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments need a moniker of your choosing before or after ... no moniker, not posted, sorry.