MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government said it will invite tenders next month for a contract to produce 176 million liters (46 million gallons) of ethanol for use as a transport fuel, part of a plan to curb pollution and diversify the country’s energy mix.

State-owned oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, will launch the bidding round, which will be concluded in December, Energy Secretary Georgina Kessel said Tuesday.

The plan will help reduce the amount of pollutants released into the atmosphere and guarantee the development of Mexico’s food industry, Kessel said during the National Peasant Confederation’s First Economic and Financial Corporate Anniversary.

The project initially will be carried out in the western state of Jalisco, with 65,000 hectares of sugarcane to be used as the source of the biofuel. The goal is to produce 176 million liters of an ethanol-gasoline blend annually.

The project is being launched after a successful test-run last month in Monterrey, the industrial hub of northern Mexico.

There, 151,600 liters of sugarcane-based ethanol were added to gasoline at service stations and a total of 2.53 million liters of the blend was sold to consumers.

Finance Secretary Agustin Carstens, for his part, said biofuels production in Mexico does not emperil ecosystems or food security, as several non-governmental organizations – especially concerned over the use of corn, a staple of the Mexican diet – have warned.

“In Mexico, there’s an agricultural zone potentially suited for the production of raw materials for ethanol production, especially sugarcane, sweet sorghum and beets, with no risk to the country’s food security or to jungles, forests and the remaining natural ecosystems,” Carstens said.

Other bidding rounds will be announced before year’s end for Monterrey and the Mexico City metropolitan area, the finance secretary said, adding that 126 million liters of ethanol annually will be required to support those initiatives.

A law to promote and develop the use of biofuels was enacted in 2008 and calls for the production of ethanol from different sources, including algae, sugarcane and corn.

The law also permits the use of leftover from sawmills, agro-industrial and urban waste and traditional agriculture and forest residues.

The measure states that biofuels production will put Mexico – a country that must import 30 percent of the gasoline it consumes – on a path to energy self-sufficiency. EFE