Potenciales y Viabilidad del Uso de Bioetanol y Biodiesel para el ...

Potenciales y Viabilidad del Uso de Bioetanol y Biodiesel para el Transporte en México (SENER-BID-GTZ)
Task 8: Synthesis and recommendations
blending terminals and at ocean ports that might be receiving in or shipping out fuel ethanol.
Besides the tankage investment requirements there is the obvious issue of who pays to
maintain the inventory.
Refining operations would have to be adjusted in order to prepare a gasoline blend stock
suitable for blending with gasoline. This is so due to the rise in vapor pressure when ethanol is
added to gasoline. Thus, butanes and pentanes, which are low value common light components
of gasoline, must be removed to lower the vapor pressure of the blend stock so that when
ethanol is added, the vapor pressure rise does not go above the specified limit established by
the environmental authorities. This operation results in refineries having to move butanes and
pentanes to low value markets and therefore possibly reducing refining margins. However, in
most countries in the world where ethanol is blended with gasoline, this is a reality that
refineries have become used to live with. On the other hand, since Mexico is a net importer of
gasoline, the introduction of fuel ethanol blends up to 10% would save on investment in new
refining capacity to produce more gasoline and would save on gasoline imports.
Mexico’s Ter-butyl ether (MTBE + TAME) capacity from 6 plants is 15.6 thousand barrels a
day (TBD), which resulted in 2005 in a deficit of 7.4 TBD. Ter-butyl ether plants owned and
operated by PEMEX in Mexico would switch to making ETBE, according to Scenarios #1 and
#2. In phasing out MTBE, if the market regulations allow, ETBE making is a higher value
proposition than the alternative of making alkylates and iso-octane, for the output of the plant
would increase. The oldest MTBE plant in the world, located in Ravenna, Italy, produces
MTBE most of the time, but when ethanol prices are attractive, it merely changes operational
parameters, such as pressure and temperature, and switches to ETBE making. Similarly, in
France, former MTBE plants have switched to ETBE as a result of favorable subsidized
ethanol prices. Thus, it should cause PEMEX no great expense to switch from MTBE to
ETBE making in its domestic plants.
To err on the side of caution, before the introduction of ethanol gasoline blends, PEMEX
would need to institute a rigorous program of inspection and maintenance of retail stations,
especially with respect to underground storage tanks. This is due to the affinity of ethanol for
water, which is often present in tank bottoms of underground storage tanks, which may lead to
phase separation, especially in lower temperatures that may occur in some parts of Mexico on
occasion throughout the year. Furthermore, retail stations operators would need training prior
to the introduction of ethanol gasoline blends to ensure understanding on their part of the
nature of the new fuel blend and the adoption of pertinent operational and maintenance
routines. Although these initiatives incur costs, the returns from a cleaner, trouble free
operation would more than compensate the investment. The public may be uneasy about the
introduction of a new fuel ethanol blend, which suggests caution in the early implementation
to avoid damaging the image of fuel ethanol.
The price of gasoline in Mexico is built up from the opportunity cost, determined by the US
Gulf Coast bulk gasoline spot prices. To this a series of taxes and levies are added covering
IEPS, IVA on all value added along the chain, freight from terminal rack to retail station, and
the commercial margin of the retailer. As the sole buyer of ethanol for blending with gasoline,
PEMEX should not have its margins squeezed, if the price of ethanol is higher than the
gasoline blend stock. Compensatory mechanisms mentioned elsewhere in this report should be
activated when such situations occur to remove this potential strong barrier to the market
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