Ethanol-blended gasoline is gaining attention again, but the path to its widespread adoption remains challenging

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In recent years, fog has been a common phenomenon in our country; to improve air quality, **various measures have been actively implemented. Given China’s national conditions, as the country with the highest global production and sales volume of automobiles, vehicle exhaust is one of the major sources of pollution that contribute to fog and haze, and policies are also focused on controlling vehicle exhaust emissions. To effectively control vehicle exhaust emissions, on the one hand, **efforts to improve the quality of fuel are being made continuously; it is expected that by January 1, 2017, all refined fuels will meet the National V emission standards** ； On the other hand, new energy vehicles are receiving significant attention, and their development pace is accelerating ； In addition to these two key aspects, ethanol-blended gasoline has recently come back into the spotlight. Using ethanol-blended gasoline is one of the ways to reduce exhaust emissions. Ethanol-blended gasoline is a new type of alternative fuel formed by mixing fuel ethanol, which is produced from grains and various plant fibers, with regular gasoline in a certain proportion. According to **standards**, ethanol-blended gasoline is made by mixing 90% regular gasoline with 10% fuel ethanol. Compared to regular gasoline, the carbon monoxide emissions from engines using ethanol gasoline can be reduced by 2/3. For example, Shanghai currently has 3 million motor vehicles; if ethanol gasoline is widely adopted, the amount of carbon monoxide emitted by these vehicles would be equivalent to that emitted by 2 million vehicles using regular gasoline. Therefore, using ethanol gasoline is also an important way to reduce exhaust pollution. Dezhou in Shandong Province and Zhanjiang in Guangdong Province have joined the effort to promote the use of ethanol gasoline. At the beginning of December, in an effort to adjust the energy structure and improve the air quality, the Legal Affairs Office of Shandong Province issued the \"Draft Measures for Promoting the Use of Ethanol Gasoline in Vehicles in Shandong Province (Draft for Public Comments)\\", proposing to promote the use of ethanol gasoline in the administrative regions of eight cities, including Jinan, Zaozhuang, Tai’an, Jining, Linyi, Dezhou, Liaocheng, and Heze; Dezhou is one of the new cities included in this initiative. And as decided by the provincial people’s ** council, vehicle ethanol gasoline can be promoted for use in other administrative regions. Zhanjiang City in Guangdong plans to introduce ethanol-blended gasoline for vehicles starting in March 2016. Nine provinces serve as pilot areas. In fact, the promotion of ethanol-blended gasoline has a history of over a decade; initial pilot projects began in 2002. Some cities in the three northeastern provinces, as well as in Shandong and Henan, which are major agricultural provinces, adopted ethanol-blended gasoline at that time. After 2004, the scope of these pilot projects expanded gradually, and by 2005, ethanol-blended gasoline was used in nine provinces. Among them, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Henan, and Anhui implemented the program on a provincial scale, while Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, and Hubei did so in certain regions within their provinces. It has its drawbacks: its market share is gradually declining. After its partial introduction, ethanol-blended gasoline faced significant criticism due to its shortcomings in terms of performance and corrosiveness, which led to poor sales. Coupled with high costs, and as regulations became less strict and the quality of refined fuels improved, the use of ethanol-blended gasoline has become increasingly limited. According to relevant statistics, the consumption of ethanol gasoline in Shandong Province currently accounts for less than 10% of the total. The 9 provinces that used ethanol-blended gasoline saw its widespread adoption during the first two years of strict regulation, but after that the level of oversight decreased. Additionally, ethanol-blended gasoline had to be purchased from designated suppliers; as the price gap between the gasoline produced by Sinopec, CNPC, and Shandong’s local refineries widened, the retail profits of private gas stations were significantly reduced, and there was also poor acceptance of this type of gasoline. As a result, most of these stations switched to purchasing high-purity gasoline from Shandong’s local refineries. Since 2008, only the designated gas stations have continued to sell ethanol-blended gasoline. The main wholesale businesses involved in the promotion of ethanol-blended gasoline have been hit the hardest, with their external sales volumes dropping significantly. According to JinYinDao, some companies in Shandong and Henan provinces report a 30-40% reduction in their wholesale volumes. Widespread adoption still requires relevant policy support. Promoting ethanol is an important measure to improve environmental quality, but achieving widespread adoption remains fraught with difficulties. Firstly, the two main channels for purchasing ethanol-blended gasoline are the key sources of supply; in the absence of market competition, the high prices of such gasoline directly reduce the profits of those who sell it ； Second, many consumers still do not approve of ethanol-blended gasoline. As **attention to the atmospheric environment increases, supervision over the market for refined petroleum products will become stricter in the future. To address the misconceptions among end-users regarding ethanol-blended gasoline, **increasing promotional efforts will help to raise public awareness of it. Furthermore, the shift from a closed to an open model has promoted ethanol-blended gasoline toward marketization, along with the provision of appropriate financial subsidies to increase its market share.