Uganda’s Kakira Sugar to start making ethanol by 2016

Jul 29, 2014 - Ugandan sugar producer Kakira Sugar Works Ltd plans to set up an ethanol production facility by 2016, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing a source from the company.

The new plant will have an annual production capacity of 20 million litres (5.3 million gallons), Kenneth Musinga Barungi, an assistant to the firm's general manager, told the news agency in an email. It will make ethanol from molasses, a by-product from cane processing. Production is expected to kick off my the end of 2015, Barungi added.

The produced ethanol will be mixed with gasoline in order to reduce domestic fuel costs. The ethanol content in the blend will range between 5% and 8%, according to the report.

Kakira Sugar is a subsidiary of industrial conglomerate Madhvani Group of Companies. The latter has invested some USD 75 million (EUR 56m) in upgrades of Kakira’s cane-crushing facilities and in 50 MW of biomass power generation capacity using bagasse as fuel.

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