Future of Alternative Energy in Thailand - Implementing Environmental and Resource Management - page 100

10.3.2 Biofuels and Natural Gas for Vehicles (NGV)
In 2003, oil companies began to market E10 premium gasoline (gasohol blended
from 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline with a research octane number of 95). In No-
vember 2007, the lower ex-factory price of ethanol together with the lower level
of oil funds increased the price differential between the normal gasoline and E10
from 1.50 baht per litre to 4.00 baht per litre, making E10 very popular. With the
aim of increasing biofuel use, discussion between the government, ethanol pro-
ducers, oil companies and automobile manufactures resulted in the introduction of
NGV E85. Thailand should have enough agricultural raw materials for all gasoline
vehicles to run on E85, but a sufficient amount of time is required for the automo-
bile and oil industries to adjust. In 2005, Biodiesel B5, which is a blend of 5%
methyl ester (B100) and 95% normal diesel, was on sale. Besides good quality
B100, Thailand also allowed the sale of 'community' biodiesel, which is lower
quality B100 made from a number of feedstocks, particularly used cooking oil. In
2007, the government issued a policy requiring all diesel fuel to be B2 and in
2008; clearer and stricter standards were issued for B100, B2 and B5, and the
automobile manufactures also agreed that all diesel vehicles in Thailand could run
on B5. Mandating B5 as the normal grade for diesel would require 2.5 million li-
tres per day of B100, and there is insufficient amount of raw palm oil or other
feedstock, to achieve this. The government, therefore, provided soft loans for the
expansion of oil palm plantation for mandating B5 by 2011 (Amranand 2008). For
more details of the potential capacity and production targets of biofuels see Table
10.2 .
In 2007, Thailand consumed 3,421 million cubic feet per day 3 (MMCFD) of
natural gas with 26% being imported from Myanmar (Amranand 2008). Various
incentives on NGV provided by the government ranged from the provision of soft
loans and direct subsidy for conversion, to the exemption of excise tax on natural
gas used in vehicles. This was coupled with ambitious targets for the establish-
ment of NGV filling stations all over the country. There were 247 NGV stations in
October 2008, which led to a rapid conversion of various vehicles to natural gas,
particularly taxis, buses and trucks. A total of 117,146 vehicles were converted, of
which 97,678 vehicles or 84% were passenger cars, and the other 18,800 vehicles
or 16% were trucks. Although the number of NGV trucks amounted to only 16%
of all vehicles, they shared around 55% of total NGV consumption (PTT 2008a).
The period between 2005 and 2007 saw a fast growth in NGV consumption, rising
from 7 million cubic feet per day in 2005 to 37 million cubic feet per day in De-
cember 2007. It further rose to 60 million cubic feet per day during the first 7
months of 2008, equivalent to 1.68 million litres per day of crude oil equivalent or
2.4% of gasoline and diesel demand (Amranand 2008). However, the fixed selling
price of NGV may increase from 8.5 baht/kg to 12-13 baht/kg in the near future
(possibly in 2009-2010), after which the NGV may be sold at the real market price
(PTT 2008a).
3 1 feet 3 = 0.0283 m 3