Beta Analytic - Bioethanol Testing

Synthetic Ethanol

Global Trend for Synthetic and BioEthanol Producers to merge

The Global Ethanol producers Tereos Group has acquired SODES, a Synthetic ethanol producer, through it's Bio-ethanol Nord Picardie subsidiary. The synthetic ethanol facility uses ethylene, a petroleum by-product, to produce ethanol. The company plans on expanding on this plant to process bio-ethanol, which is chemically and physically indistinguishable from the synthetic ethanol, produced in the same plant.

NCP alcohols, largest ethanol producers in Africa (67% of all production exported), Purchased AlcoGroup which produces synthetic ethanol and fermented alcohols for fuel, industrial use and accounts for 8% of all the global ethanol trades last year.

The global chemicals firm INEOS Enterprises (the largest synthetic ethanol producer in the world) has begun construction of a new Biofuels plant in the UK. This plant will be built on the site of INEOS Refining that produces 300,000 tonnes of synthetic ethanol from ethylene.

What does this mean?

The biofuel market does not demand high purity product in comparison to many traditional outlets. This means that, for a producer who is serving both the fuel and the traditional markets, the fuel outlet provides a home for synthetic ethanol, which would be off-specification for traditional non-fuel applications. This gives a cost savings on re-processing synthetic ethanol for the fuel market.

Effectiveness and use of synthetic ethanol as fuel

The effect of synthetic ethanol on octane response and fuel performance of fuel mixtures was compared to that of fermented ethanol of 99.9% purity sourced from California. It was concluded that the synthetic ethanol produced from coal compared very favorably to bio-ethanol and it is therefore a feasible alternative to the fermented alcohol in use elsewhere in the world.*

* J.Van Heerden, J.J. Botha, P.N.J. Roets: "Comparison between Sasol fuel alcohol and pure ethanol as a gasoline oxygenate" Presentation to the XIV International Symposium on Alcohol Fuels, Phuket, November 2002

Coal-derived synthetic ethanol is currently used in South Africa as a 12% blend with gasoline

There is a worldwide trend from ethanol consuming nations, such as Brazil and South Africa, to use synthetic ethanol to fill gaps in supply during periods of rapid growth or dips in domestic supply. Brazil, with its mature ethanol market place, still openly imported synthetic ethanol as fuel until only a few years ago when traditional supply resumed again.

Synthetic ethanol supply

Synthetic ethanol is readily synthesized from natural gas, coal and ethylene, a byproduct of petroleum. Synthetic ethanol from coal was half the cost of ethanol from cane CARENSA 30/1/2003-5/2/2003 South Africa

The production of ethanol from petroleum ethylene is a simple one-step process. The recent dramatic price rise of ethanol (at one point up to $4.00 per gallon in 2006) has probably encouraged petroleum product manufactures to switch other uses of ethylene, principally from low cost plastics, to the more valued ethanol.

Saudi Arabia's SABIC exports exclusively synthetic ethanol produced from ethylene. Between 1999 and 2003 they were the world's largest exporter to the United States of ethanol.

According to the United States International Trade Commission, in 2005 CBI (Caribbean Basin Initiative) imports, which are tariff free and receive state tax incentives, again represented more than half of all bio-ethanol imports. This ethanol is not tested for synthetic ethanol content.

Countries that have shown awareness and concern about this issue:

New Zealand
Holland
The Netherlands
United Kingdom
Australia
South Africa
European Commission: (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden)

Senate passed an energy bill that contains a provision (RFS) that would mandate the use of bio-ethanol in gasoline to 5 billion gallons by the year 2012. The Joint Committee on Taxation has estimated that this provision will cost taxpayers $5 billion over the next ten years. Proper monitoring must be put into place to verify that the spirit of the law (its bioethanol mandate) is not flaunted, particularly through the use of imported ethanol.