The Mozambican government intends to reduce import levels of oil products by blending ethanol with gasoline and diesel, as part of the biofuels program..

To this end, the Mozambican Executive updated the legislation in 2023, which advocates the need to empower national farmers and reduce or save foreign currency.

Speaking on Thursday (15) in Maputo, on the sidelines of a seminar on biofuels with a focus on the ethanol industry in Mozambique, the deputy national director of Hydrocarbons and Fuels, at the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, José Muhai, said that "the aim of this biofuels program is to guarantee the mixture, in a first phase, of 10% of ethanol, with petrol, and then, in a first phase, also 3% of diesel, both with biodiesel".

Cited by AIMMuhai said that, with the introduction of the biofuels program, the government expects to cut an average of around 50,000 cubic meters of petrol and almost 45,000 cubic meters of diesel.

He said that there are projects that are already at the feasibility study stage, some of which are already in pilot projects for the production of these fuels, and that others will focus on the use of copra, others on the use of jatropha and others on the use of molasses.

The deputy director of the National Institute for Standardization and Quality (INNOQ), Arlindo Mucone, said that the event aims to strengthen the institution's commitment to sustainable development by promoting biofuels in Mozambique, creating more favourable conditions for the use of ethanol, both in clean cooking solutions and in blends with fossil fuels.

The source also pointed out that the country has favorable agro-geological conditions for large-scale biofuel production, especially biodiesel from raw materials such as coconuts.

"I think we also have fertile land for us to produce jatropha and ethanol that can be obtained from sugar meat, cassava, we have sugar cane, we have cassava and other agricultural products that are widely available in our country," he pointed out.

(Photo DR)