China to switch to ethanol by 2020

China has laid out plans to boost its ethanol industry, turning agricultural waste into biofuel for cars.

Last Wednesday China announced plans to roll out the use of ethanol gasoline by 2020 as it tries to reduce its alarming levels of smog, reports Reuters.

This is the first time the government has set a targeted timeline for pushing the biofuel, known as E10 and containing 10 percent corn, across the world's largest car market.

As well as using up stockpiles of corn, China wants to produce ethanol from cellulose – a plant’s stringy fibre rather than its seeds or fruit – in a “structural way” by 2025.

With straw stalks and farm waste being one of the biggest sources of pollution in China, the Government sees this as an opportunity to tackle two problems at once.