Beginning
with benzine, apart from conducting
campaigns to reduce its
consumption we mix it litre
for litre with ethanol or ethyl
alcohol derived from
agricultural crops and call
it gasohol.
Gasohol was first initiated
in Thailand in 1985 when His
Majesty the King
foresaw problems of oil shortage
and depressed prices of agricultural
products. The
King thus began a personal project
at Chitralada Palace to produce
gasohol by
processing sugarcane into ethanol
and then mixing it with gasoline.
Test runs of the
fuel on various vehicles yielded
satisfactory results. The Government
and oil companies
have recently taken up His Majesty's
idea in earnest and the use
of gasohol has been
expanding widely and rapidly.
The important fact is that
as from January 1, 2007 every
petrol station in the
Kingdom will replace Benzine
95 with Gasohol 95 in accordance
with Government
policy.
As for diesel, there will be
3 types of biodiesel derived
from plants and animal
fat, whether pre-used or freshly
produced, viz. pure plant oil
or animal fat e.g.
cocoanut oil, palm oil, pig
fat; plant oil or animal fat
mixed with diesel for agricultural
and industrial machinery; and
biodiesel produced through chemical
process to retain
properties of diesel as much
as possible for use in diesel
engines of cars.
As in the case of gasohol,
the Government is expediting
the development and
promoting the production of
biodiesel by encouraging oil
palm tree growing in the
South and the East, while setting
a biodiesel comsumption target
of 8.5 million litres
per day by the year 2012.
Which means that within only
5 to 10 years from now, bio
fuels both as gasohol
and biodiesel will be locally
produced for domestic consumption
in sufficient quantities,
saving several billion Baht
of foreign exchange on import
of octane enhancing additivesand
substituting for crude oil and
petroleum fuels.
At the same time, it will help
Thai farmers to sell their crops
at higher prices,
benefiting the economy as a
whole as well as promoting agro
industry-which is the
proper and sustainable way to
develop the country.
