Biofuels Start Your Engines

With a decision for all US Indy Cars to run their V8 Engines on Ethanol this year, the US Auto Manufacturers are on board for biofuels. Rather than endorsing the option for environmental or sustainability reasons, the main reason is political, driven by a desire to reduce the dependence on overseas oil and the preference by the manufacturers for biofuels over increasingly strict fuel economy standards.

Chief executives from the U.S. automakers Monday urged President George W. Bush to back incentives to bring ethanol and biodiesel to more gasoline station pumps as the companies increased production of so-called flexible-fuel vehicles.

Half the vehicles made by General Motors, Ford Motor and the Chrysler unit of DaimlerChrysler by 2012 could be able to run on biodiesel or E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, Rick Wagoner of General Motors, Alan Mulally of Ford and Tom LaSorda of Chrysler said in a statement.

This has implications here in Adelaide, where Holden (General Motors) is going to be ramping up exports from the local plant. Specialised modifications to existing technology would have to be incorporated into the models produced here.

We have limited access to biofuels here in Australia and it is mainly minor players who make the blend available at a small discount. Australian biofuel companies have concentrated on expanding in America rather than here in Australia.