In Europe, there is a substantial and growing use of biodiesel.
Autoblog Green reports that at least some of the Madrid bus fleet will be switching from B10 to B40. The Autonomous Region of Madrid has expanded their fleet with the purchase of a new set of public buses.
The region currently uses B10 on a 21.5 percent of its fleet but this new set of buses are guaranteed by the manufacturer to be capable of using up to a B40 mixture (40 percent of biodiesel). The region also expects to have 50 percent of the fleet running with biodiesel, albeit B10 or B20 blends, by 2011.
While some studies indicate that there are less air, water and solid waste emissions generated by biodiesel than by petroleum diesel fuel, at very high concentrations of methyl ester, total HC, CO, and NOx are higher. In the United States Cincinnati Metro has tested B50 in some buses, operating buses for several million miles on different concentrations of biodiesel since it began participation in national test programs in 1993.
Delphi is conducting an extensive international bench testing program with fuels at concentrations from B10 to B100, plus high mileage fleet testing in partnership with its customers, so more may be known about advantages and disadvantages of different concentration of biodiesel in the near future.
Usually made from rapeseed, a B20 blend can reduce smoke and particulates by 10 percent to 20 percent, and carbon monoxide by up to 20 percent. According to Green Car Congress, the European Commission has endorsed greater adoption of biodiesel, based upon the following considerations:
- First-generation biodiesel, i.e., coming from oil seed grown in Europe and using the most economically attractive production method, result in greenhouse gas emissions 35-50% lower than the conventional fuels they replace (on a well-to-wheel basis).
- Second-generation biodiesel, i.e., coming from recycling and post-production processes, should bring savings of the order of 90% (when ready to enter the market).
Not all Europeans favor greater use of biofuel. Similar to the criticism expressed in the United States by Lester Brown, Green Greenie saxon68 posted to the Everything Green Treehugger Forum an expressed concern that water will go for biofuels rather than for food?
Biofuels, hailed by many as the green solution to offset a coming oil shortage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, are not a cure-all solution, experts at a water conference in Stockholm warned this week.
Biofuels, which are made from crops, require huge amounts of water, a resource that is already in short supply in many parts of the world. Bioenergy could thus end up diverting water resources desperately needed for food crops.
“When governments and companies are discussing biofuel solutions, I think water issues are not addressed enough,” Johan Kuylenstierna, director of the World Water Week conference, told AFP.
The annual gathering is being attended by 2,500 water experts from around the world.
In the future “food production will need to increase, water consumption will increase dramatically in the agriculture sector and biofuels will increase. This doesn’t add up for the water perspective”, Kuylenstierna added.
“Where will the water to grow the food needed to feed a growing population come from if more and more water is diverted to crops for biofuels production?” asked Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) spokesperson David Trouba.
According to SIWI, in 2050, the amount of additional water needed for bioenergy production will be equivalent to the amount required by the agricultural sector to feed the world properly.
“Biofuels are not ‘the’ solution, but one of the solutions,” Kuylenstierna stressed.
Meanwhile Sunita Narain, the head of the Centre for Science and Environment in India and a prominent expert at the Stockholm conference, said biofuels were “good as an idea, bad in practice”.
The main priority should not be how to develop biofuels, but rather how to put a halt to society’s increasing fuel consumption, she insisted.
She said it was “asinine” to believe that the world would be able to continue to consume as much biofuel in the future as it does fossil fuel today.
“If you want to use water for it (biofuel production), you must cut down on the consumption of biofuels,” she said, suggesting that ethanol be used for collective transport such as buses to reduce the number of cars on the road.
In addition to the water shortage issue, experts said they also feared that large-scale biofuel production would lead to a sharp rise in the price of food staples.
“Biofuel production could be a great competitor to food production. Global food prices could increase,” Kuylenstierna explained.
That thought was echoed by Narain, who criticised price pressure on foodstuffs and cited the case of the recent “tortilla war” in the United States.
An increase in US production of ethanol, made of maize, in early 2007 led to a rise in the price of the crop on the international market, which in turn prompted a surge in the price of tortillas, a corn-based bread that is a staple among Mexicans.
The United States is investing heavily in developing its ethanol production, which now accounts for five percent of fuel volumes sold in the country.
For 95 litres of pure ethanol, about 200kg of maize are needed, or the equivalent of enough calories to feed a person for an entire year, SIWI noted.
