Researches to invent alternatives to fuel

Shirajiv Sirimane

ENERGY: Industrials Technology Institute (ITI) is to intensify research on the usage of alternative energy sources to minimise the use of fuel and gases.

Agricultural waste has been used for many years to produce Biogases for cooking purposes and since then many alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power are being used efficiently.

An official from the ITI said that the Minister of Science and Technology, Tissa Witharana has directed them to look for alternative energy sources. “We are now looking at several options to produce energy and utilisation of agriculture waste is a priority,” he said.

Director Pelwatte Sugar Industries Ltd, Ariyaseela Wickramanayake said that sugar cane waste can be used to produce electricity, alcohol and gasoline. “Presently we are producing 25 megawatts of power from our plant in Pelwatte,” he said.

Brazil leads the world with a Sugar cane production level of 14 billion litres, enough to replace about 40 per cent of its gasoline demand.

As a world leader in fuel ethanol production, most new cars in the country are “flexible-fuel vehicles” that can run on ethanol, gasoline or any blend of the two.

He said that in India, out of the total fuel consumption over 10 percent is being used from alternative sources. “Decades ago coal was the main power source and today it has been replaced by petroleum. Very soon ethanol and other sources will replace petroleum,” he said.

Brazilian drivers have at least 29,000 filling stations around the country where they can fill up with ethanol. In the U.S., ethanol is commonly blended with gasoline to produce a hybrid nicknamed “gasohol”, available from 600 gas stations nationwide.

Brazil’s main sugarcane-producing center-south region shipped out a record 428 million litres of ethanol in June, if not more, and the region is likely to accelerate its exports to 1.5 billion liters by September.

While in the U.S, one of the world’s largest producers of ethanol, plans to upgrade it to 7.5 billion litres by 2012.

China produced about one billion litres of ethanol from their wheat and corn rich provinces, France, leading other European nations produced over 200 million gallons of the product from sugar beets and wheat.