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General Motors has announced a deal with a US ethanol research company that it believes could halve the price of a gallon of petrol, and reduce the CO2 emissions of the fuel by up to 84 per cent.
Coskata, a biology-based renewable energy company, has developed a means of producing ethanol from wood waste, household rubbish and old tyres by using bacteria and an existing gasification technology in a process that yields 99.7 per cent pure ethanol, plus water.
GM and Coskata claim that this method of ethanol production is far superior to using grain in terms of CO2 reduction, and an improvement on using ethanol produced using cellulosic plant-fibre ethanol (which is more CO2 efficient than grain) too.
It is a technology that is also available now, in contrast to extracting ethanol fro cellulosic feedstocks, claims GM.
The American giant's aim is to encourage significantly wider use of E85 petrol (consisting of 85 per cent ethanol, 15 per cent fossil-based fuel), an approach it believes to be the speediest means of reducing the CO2 emissions of America's vehicle fleet, as well as reducing the country's dependence on fossil fuels.
"There are six million vehicles on the US roads made by General Motors, Ford and Chrysler that are E85 compatible," says GM's CEO Rick Wagoner, "and if they were to use E85 they would reduce America's consumption of petroleum by 29 billion gallons, or 18 per cent."
That figure rises to 32 per cent if E85 models that have been sold by all manufacturers are included.
Currently, distribution of E85 is limited to only 1000 petrol stations out of America's network of 170,000, but GM is attempting to dramatically increase the fuel's distribution, while making 50 per cent of its US model range E86 compatible by 2012.
While most US-marketed cars can run an E10 ethanol mix without modification, E85 fuel requires more extensive modification. But the cost of these changes is minimal compared to the complexity of manufacturing a hybrid vehicle, let alone a fuel cell model.
GM's investment in Coskata will assist the energy company in the launch of a pilot refinery producing 40,000 gallons annually this year, with a 100-million gallon facility coming on stream by late 2010.
North America currently consumes 140 billion gallons of petrol annually. Because a gallon of E85 is less energy dense than fossil-based petrol its actual cost works out at $3.32 a gallon rather than the current pump price of $3.10 - making an E85 vehicle more expensive to run than a diesel, according to a report in USA Today.
And a Stanford University report suggest that widespread use of E85 could promote respiratory illnesses, though GM disputes these findings.
Either way, General Motor's investment in Coskata is a highly unusual initiative from a major car manufacturer, and clearly intended to fast-track the take-up of ethanol.
It's a project that will be a major test of GM's clout and resolve. But if it succeeds, this initiative could eventually produce a significant reduction in North America's CO2 emissions, and trigger similar developments elsewhere.
"There is no question in my mind that making ethanol more widely available is absolutely the most effective and environmentally sound solution," said Wagoner, "and it's one that can be acted on immediately".
(One gallon = 3.78 litres).
- REUTERS
