On a recent trip to Sweden, Conor Twomeysaw first-hand how the Swedes are using ethanol as an alternative to fossil fuel
The Swedes are leading the way. That's a rather unlikely statement in the global energy field but its increasingly the truth.
With the world's oil supply becoming overwhelmed by increasing demand from developing nations and many experts blaming CO2 from fossil fuels for accelerated climate change, governments have had to seriously start looking for an antidote to our current oil addiction. Ethanol currently leads the field and is being hailed as the answer to many of our oily problems.
Ethanol is basically a liquid alcohol that is produced by fermenting the natural sugars found in plants. It has similar physical properties to petrol and can be poured into the petrol tank and used to power a lightly modified internal combustion engine, in much the same way as petrol does.
This means that it can be readily assimilated into everyday life without the need for vast changes in terms of the cars we drive, or the way our fuel is transported, stored and distributed.
For environmentalists, the big advantage of ethanol is that it is almost completely CO2 neutral. The CO2 released when ethanol is burned comes entirely from plants, which have in turn absorbed their CO2 from the atmosphere.
However, it's a common misconception that ethanol cars produce almost no CO2 at all compared to petrol-power cars. The tailpipe emissions from an ethanol car are about the same as those from a conventional car, it's just that CO2 released when ordinary petrol is burned has been stored underground for thousands of years and the earth's atmosphere isn't able to absorb all the additional CO2 floating around.
Most of the world's ethanol currently comes from Brazilian sugar cane, but America has recently begun ramping up crop production and bespoke farms and processing plants have also begun cropping up in Europe.
The Carbery Group in Co Cork (better known for giving Bailey's Irish Cream its alcoholic kick) uses a milk by-produce, whey, as its raw material, but sugar beet, grass and wheat are just some of the other crops that can be used.
This makes Ireland an ideal candidate for early adaption to extensive E85 use.
For example, now that the sugar industry has been decimated there is a lot of land, manpower and expertise going to waste that could otherwise be channelled into reducing our dependency on oil while at the same time generating badly-needed rural employment.
At present, ethanol has to be mixed at a ratio of 85 per cent ethanol to 15 per cent petrol to make it more palatable to our current generation of converted engines (It comes out of the nozzle at the petrol station pre-mixed, incidentally). Ethanol has a higher octane rating (104 versus 95 for unleaded petrol) so is less prone to igniting under pressure, which makes it ideal for lean-burning high-compression (and turbo-charged) engines.
However, at present E85-powered cars use modified versions of existing petrol engines which also have to be capable of running on ordinary unleaded, which means they're not entirely optimised for E85 use.
In addition, ethanol is less energy dense than petrol so more of it is required to produce similar power, which helps explain why cars running on E85 are about 30 to 40 per cent less fuel-efficient than when running on pure petrol.
Once ethanol becomes more widely accepted, however, engineers say they will eventually be able to build engines that are more powerful and efficient than petrol engines thanks to ethanol's unique high octane properties. E85 is already available in 14 Maxol filling stations around the country with 16 more planned by the end of this year. To give an indication of how committed Sweden is to E85, it has mandated that 2,400 of its filling stations carry E85 by the end of 2008, while Spain, Germany and especially France have also announced ambitious goals for establishing ethanol as a mainstream fuel source.
In addition, ethanol can be blended with ordinary unleaded petrol in small amounts, which helps reduce the amount of oil that needs to be imported.
In the US, for example, all petrol now contains 10 per cent ethanol, while in Brazil it's 25 per cent and in Sweden it's 5 per cent. By 2017, America hopes to reduce oil imports by as much as 30 per cent, while the EU expects 20 per cent of our fuel to be locally-produced ethanol as soon as 2020.
The Government already offers a 50 per cent VRT rebate on all E85-powered cars, making them several thousand euro cheaper than identical petrol-only models, but this might be curtailed at the end of the year when the pilot scheme runs out.
There's reduced duty on the fuel and company car drivers can also claim bcak VAT on E85, but more can be done to encourage its use.
The Government could follow Sweden's example and offer "Benefit-In-Kind" reductions for environmentally-friendly company car drivers, as well as free parking and congestion charge exemptions for E85 drivers.
The barrier-free M50 could also be toll-free to E85 users, and why not reduce road tax and offer VAT rebates on all servicing, parts and NCT tests, too? It could also mandate that taxi, bus and refuse companies have to run a certain percentage of their fleet running on bio-fuels, as well as buying E85 Garda cars, An Post vans and ESB trucks. Such incentives can be very successful, as Sweden has shown.
At present, 20 per cent of all cars currently sold in Sweden are powered by E85, but this is expected to rise to 33 per cent by 2008. The benefit for Sweden isn't just environmental. Eventually, it hopes to be completely self-sustaining in terms of energy production, an astonishing achievement for such a small nation.
Whether or not you subscribe to the hysteria regarding climate change, the fact that we are in an ideal position to reduce our expenditure on oil imports, offer employment to thousands and help absorb some of the CO2 out of the atmosphere makes ethanol something Ireland should be thinking very seriously about as well.