Fuel booster hits local market

A bio-natural liquid catalyst, XXL, which enhances fuel efficiency and reduces carbon emissions, has been launched on the local market.

Friday, June 28, 2013
Lwakabamba (middle) talks with other guests at the launch of XXL. The New Times/ Timothy Kisambira

A bio-natural liquid catalyst, XXL, which enhances fuel efficiency and reduces carbon emissions, has been launched on the local market.George Sinvoich, the Swiss FinE International Services Africa head of green products, said the product ensures clean and efficient oil performance as well as combustion when added to petrol or diesel, reducing emissions by about 50 per cent. The product can be used in any type of combustion engine that uses hydrocarbon fuel, including aviation fuel, he added.The launch of XXL comes at a time when it has emerged that Rwanda’s bio-diesel project designed make the country a net bio-fuel producer by 2025, is ‘limping’. The plant would be producing about 5 per cent of the country’s diesel needs if it had been given full support since it was established in 2007, according to Dr. Jean Baptiste Nduwayezu, the Scientific and Technological Research Institute (IRST) director general. He argued that IRST has not been able to access vital chemical reagent needed to process bio-diesel for over a year now due to the previously rigid public procurement guidelines. Bio-diesel, one of the cleanest and efficient green fuels, is produced from oil extracted from oil-producing seeds like palm tree, moringa and jatropha seeds.Speaking at the function at Hotel des Mille Colline in Kigali on Wednesday, Silas Lwakabamba, the Infrastructure minister, noted that innovative products like XXL could greatly reduce pollution in the country. He also noted that the product could help the government save millions of dollars spent on heavy fuel imports to generate power.Roland Staehli, the Swiss FinE head of sales, said the product reduces fuel consumption by between 10 per cent and 15 per cent per litre of gas.