Colombia's ethanol production capacity has increased 32% from October of last year to a current average of 1.65 million liters/day with the successful ramping up on October 1 of the new 400,000 l/d Rio Paila ethanol factory in the Cauca Valley sugar growing region, an industry spokesman said Tuesday.
The added capacity at the privately owned, $250 million plant will be used to supply the ethanol needed to meet new biofuels standards for six provinces in southwestern Colombia, effective this month. The new plant is located in the country's prime sugar farming region.
In Valle de Cauca, Narino, Risaralda, Quindio, Caldas and Cauca provinces, motorists must now fill their tanks with gasoline that is 10% ethanol, up from the previous 8%, according to Alfonso Montero, treasurer of Fedecombustibles, a biofuels trade group based in Bogota.
Montero said that the same 10% biofuels standard will be applied to the rest of the country's provinces next year once a second new ethanol plant, the 450,000 l/d Bioenergy facility, is completed in Puerto Lopez in eastern Meta province.
Bioenergy is a unit of the state-controlled Ecopetrol oil company. The $350 million project includes 15,000 hectares destined for the growing of company-owned sugar crops for use as the plant's raw material. Half of those fields have been planted. Using imported Brazilian technology, the Bioenergy plant will be the only factory in Colombia dedicated strictly to ethanol and not sugar as well.
Through September 30, the Colombian ethanol industry produced 322.4 million liters of ethanol year-to-date, a 6.8% increase from the 301.68 million liters produced over the same nine-month period in 2014. Colombia consumes all the ethanol that it produces.
Montero attributed the increase in ethanol consumption this year to a doubling of the national motorcycle fleet since 2011 to 6 million vehicles.
Colombia has some of South America's most stringent air pollution standards. Laws requiring growing ethanol inclusion at the pump have been in place since 2001. Last year's ethanol production totaled 406 million liters of fuel, all produced at five plants with sugar as the raw material.
As for biodiesel, Colombia produced 444.13 million liters through September 30, mainly with refined palm oil, down 1.8% from the 452.2 million liters produced over the first nine months of 2014. Colombia consumes all the biodiesel that it produces.
Montero attributed the drop in biodiesel usage to transportation strikes earlier this year. Also, the opening of new pipelines have meant less of Colombia's crude oil is now hauled by tanker trucks to refineries and export depots than in years past.
In urban areas, laws dictate that truck drivers and heavy equipment operators must use diesel containing 8% palm-oil based fuel. In rural areas, the ratio rises to 10%, he said.
The biofuels industry in the country is lobbying the Colombian government to approve changes to laws that would require a jump to 20% ethanol in gasoline by 2020, an increase that has been approved by regulators but which has not been codified by the government.
Montero said auto manufacturers are fighting the increase, claiming possible motor damages, although motorists in Brazil run on ethanol mixes higher than 20%. Some consumer advocates have warned that raising the ethanol mix could create shortages of sugar, which in turn would raise food prices.
