By Mc Donald Chapalapata, contributor:
Press Corporation Limited (PCL) plc, through its subsidiary, PressCane Limited, has invested K11 billion in an ethanol plant for production of quality potable ethanol.
The product will be used in the pharmaceutical and beverage industries, with some targeted for the export market.
According to PCL Chief Executive Officer Ronald Mangani, the ethanol plant will also have a component of Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) capable of producing fertiliser, bio-gas and electricity from the waste of ethanol production.
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“We are in the process of upgrading our versatile ethanol plant at PressCane Limited which will enable full utilisation of its production capacity of 60,000 litres of ethanol per day.
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“This can be used for fuel blending and, more importantly, high-quality potable ethanol, called ‘pharma-grade’, which can be used in the pharmaceutical and beverage industries, apart from exporting it to bring in the much-needed foreign exchange into the country,” Mangani said.
He said the company has invested K2 billion in the ‘pharma-grade’ potable ethanol production plant, and a further K9 billion in the ZLD plant.
“We are already in talks with foreign customers to export the product, and this will be good for our country especially now when we are having foreign exchange challenges,” Mangani said.
Under the pharma-grade project, PressCane will bring an additional standalone unit to process hydrous alcohol to produce an additional 30 kilolitres of anhydrous alcohol per day.
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According to Mangani, the unit will be capable of improving the produced AA to a quality suitable for both pharmaceutical and beverage applications.
This investment will, therefore, increase annual AA production from the current 13 million litres to 18 million litres. In addition, the company will be capable of producing 7 million litres of potable ethanol in a year.
