The project follows a test-run in July 2009, in which 151,600 litres of ethanol were added to petrol in Monterrey, the industrial hub of Northern Mexico.
Several feedstocks will be used for the ethanol, beginning with sugarcane, where 65,000 hectares in the western state of Jalisco are to be used to produce 176 million litres of ethanol-gasoline blend in a project beginning later in September 2009.
A law has been passed in 2008 calling to produce ethanol from different materials, including sugar cane, algae and corn as well as agricultural and municipal waste.
‘In Mexico, there’s an agricultural zone potentially suited for the production of raw materials for ethanol production, especially sugarcane, sweet sorghum and beets, with no risk to the country’s food security or to jungles, forests and the remaining natural ecosystems,’ said Finance Secretary Augustin Carstens.
