2006 Volume 85 Issue 3 Pages 208-212
To know the current situations on ethanol utilization, a detailed survey was made on its demand and supply in Asian countries such as Japan, China, India, Thailand, Korea, Philippine, and Pakistan. As a result, it was clarified that ethanol market has been developed and commercialized already in China and Thailand. It was found to be due to a sudden increase in the crude oil price and recent motorization progressed by an economic development, together with plentiful feedstocks available in these developing countries.
In Japan, however, utilization of ethanol fuel is under consideration through the empirical car testing for targeting the practical use by 2012, while in Korea, a progress is only for testing production of ethanol from the imported grains. In India, Philippine, and Pakistan, ethanol fuel production program has just initiated recently. In China, ethanol fuel production has been developed in the north-east granary region with using maize mainly. Whereas in Thailand, ethanol fuel production has been also progressed to stimulate local economics in rural districts, and now ethanol produced mainly from molasses has been sold in a vicinity of Bangkok. In the near future, a large-scale ethanol production is being expected on the sugar cane industry basis.
