Sustainable Affairs: automotion

Se ha convertido en el fabricante líder dentro del mercado de los vehículos que trabajan con etanol y cuenta con una amplia gama de autos FlexFuel, capaces de funcionar con E85 como el chevroletImpala .

La semana pasada la ciudad de Miami vivió en carne propia una evidencia del ritmo con el que el E85 viene penetrando en los distintos mercados de los Estados Unidos. Desde el jueves 13 de septiembre, miles propietarios de vehículos que utilizan como combustible esta mezcla de gasolina con 85% de etanol de origen vegetal, ya pueden abastecer sus tanques más cerca de los lugares donde viven o trabajan.

La gasolinera que recién se inauguró es solo una de las muchas que han venido abriéndose a lo largo y ancho del país, y de las tantas más que abrirán en los próximos meses, sobre todo si continúa la tendencia alcista en los precios del petróleo.

La apertura del primer minorista de este tipo de combustible en el sur de la Florida fue anunciada por la Dra. Beth Stanek, Directora de Medio Ambiente y Energía de GM, dentro del marco de una conferencia sobre este nuevo combustible, sus alcances y la importancia de su llegada al sur de la Florida, realizada por General Motors y la Universidad Internacional de la Florida.

Con la apertura del primer expendio de E85 de la firma U Gas, los 11,317 propietarios de vehículos aptos para consumo de combustible E85 que General Motors ha vendido en la zona de Miami, tendrán una alternativa para ayudar a economizar combustibles no renovables y reducir nuestra dependencia del petróleo importado.

Si todos los dueños de esos vehículos decidieran llenar sus tanques con E85, el ahorro de petróleo superaría los 161,000 barriles al año. Un vehículo apto para abastecerse con combustible flexible es aquel cuyo motor funciona con una combinación de gasolina y etanol que puede ir desde 0% etanol y 100% gasolina, hasta 85% etanol y 15% gasolina.

Se da por descontado que, a medida que crezca la demanda del E85, aumentará también la oferta del producto y se perfeccionará su sistema de distribución. Una vez cristalicen esos dos hechos, la reducción del precio del novedoso combustible será inevitable y mientras más barato sea, será también más popular.

Frente a este tema, Estados Unidos debería mirarse en el espejo brasileño, porque la utilización del E85 contribuirá sin duda a fortalecer la economía norteamericana y a fomentar la independencia energética, ya que se reduce la necesidad de importar petróleo extranjero.

Más de la mitad del petróleo que consumimos es importado y a medida que crece ese consumo, la única alternativa viable para revertir esa tendencia a corto plazo está en el uso del etanol.

Desde el punto de vista ambiental el E85 también es invaluable, porque su combustión es mucho más limpia que la de la gasolina y además, es completamente renovable, una vez que los productos agrícolas que sirven para destilar el etanol pueden volver a sembrarse una y otra vez, al contrario del petróleo, que una vez extraído del subsuelo, no vuelve.

Adicionalmente, agencias del gobierno han realizado pruebas que demuestran que las emisiones de los vehículos a E85 son menos nocivas que las de los vehículos a gasolina y, como si fuera poco, producen menos dióxido de carbono, un gas contaminador, responsable en buena parte del efecto invernadero que ha resultado en el calentamiento global. Otra ventaja ambiental del E85 es su rápida degradación en el agua, hecho que lo hace menos peligroso al medio ambiente en caso de un derramamiento accidental.

General Motors se ha convertido en el fabricante líder dentro del mercado de los vehículos a combustible flexible y cuenta con una amplia gama de vehículos FlexFuel, capaces de funcionar con E85. Entre ellos aparece el Saturn Vue y Aura, los GMC Yukon y los Chevrolet Impala, Tahoe, Suburban, Avalanche, Silverado, y muy pronto el nuevo Malibu.

Via|El Nuevo Herald|by JAIME FLOREZ
FlexFuel,USA,E85,automotion,GMC Yukon,Aura,Chevrolet Impala,Tahoe,Suburban,Avalanche,Silverado,Malibu,ethanol,Saturn Vue,energyblog

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That smell coming from that super-modern highclass luxury car, say an Audi A8, BMW7 or Mercedes- S class won’t be just fine Corinthian leather any more, but something a tad more toxic, if fuel-efficient: something like fried potatoes. That’s because investments in biofuels are picking up, including German interest in a 100 million Euro plant, probably near the sea capital of Varna, which would make Bulgaria a key player in the burgeoning drive to produce biofuels for cars, initially for luxury cars whose buyers can afford the changes needed to modify the vehicles.

It has become clear that the biggest producer of such fuels in Europe, the German concern Verbio AG (Verbio Vereinigte BioEnergie AG) is checking the opportunities to invest in construction of a factory for biofuels in Bulgaria. The executive director of Verbio AG Klaus Zauter discussed the investment plans of the company during a meeting with the Minister of Economy and Energy Petar Dimitrov. Verbio AG is looking for proper terrain to build the concern, and reportedly prefers a port city.

The factory will produce biodiesel and bioethanol both at the same time. Dimitrov said he thinks a likely site is Varna. Most probably the company will apply as a first-class investor. The local partner of the concern is Euroethyl JSC which is the first producer of bioethanol in the country and has a plant near Alfatar, the Silistra region. Euroethyl JSC is planning to widen this factory. The project is scheduled to be finished at the beginning of 2008 and, with it, the capacity for producing bioethanol will increase four times, said the company’s Executive Director, Radoslav Shunk, cited by Bulgarian National Radio.

The capacity of Euroethyl JSC now is 10,000 000, litres, and it’s aiming to achieve 40,000,000 litres. Dimitrov is well acquainted with the perspectives for rapid growth of the biofuels market. As a former chairman of a committee of ways and means in the parliament, he was one of the defenders of the stimulation of this business in Bulgaria, as experts in the branch are reminding. Dimitrov was an active participant and has had a great contribution to the establishment of zero rating for biofuels by a change in the Tax Stores and Excise Duties Act, said officials from Euroethyl JSC. Verbio has plants for biodiesel and bioethanol in Germany with a total production capacity of more than 700,000 tonnes per year, or 2,100,000 litres per day. Some 400,000 tonnes is biodiesel and 300,000 tonnes is bioethanol.

The company is working also in the field of the reviving energy sources. The concern owns a 120-megawatt wind power plant in Germany. The whole business is united in Verbio Group, which has more than 1000 employees and revenues of more than one billion Euro. Shares of the concern are traded at the stock exchange in Frankfurt. Verbio is not the first foreign producer declaring intentions to invest in construction of plants in Bulgaria. Back in February the Bulgarian News Agency reported that businessmen brothers Tomas and Richard Pambald from Sweden are intending to invest 70,000,000 Euro for construction of a biofuel plant near Pleven. They presented their project during a meeting with the chief of the region Cvetko Cvetkov.

The Swedish investors are planning production capacity of 150,000 cubic metres of bioethanol per month. According to the Agriculture and Woods service in the region of Pleven, more than 400,000 tonnes of biomass, proper for processing in fuel, is expected to be extracted. The larger usage of biofuels in the future is not only an act of good will. The Directive of EU 30 from 2003 obliges EU countries to increase the use of ecological fuels sharply, instead of the oil. In this respect, biodiesel will replace a bigger part of oil fuels. Biodiesel in Europe today is an industry of more than USD 500 million, and the consulting agency Frost & Sullivan predicted growth up to USD 2.4 billion with 4.5 million tonnes in sales per year until 2007. The European Union will need millions of tonnes of imported biofuels to fulfill its ecological plans, the Financial Times reported. This is demanded by an act, requiring standard fuels to be mixed with 10 percent ethanol.

According to the ecological requirements, after 2009 European gas stations should start offering two new types of petrol – E5 with five percent ethanol and E10 mixed with 10 percent of the alternative fuel. The biodiesel market is growing all over the world. In Germany this fuel is offered at a lower price than petrol diesel at more than 2000 gas stations. At the moment, Bulgaria has accepted the guideline for replacement of 5.75 percent of the petrol and diesel with reviving fuels. For now only a few gas stations are mixing the fuels and only Tempo petrol is offering pure biodiesel. With the exceptionally favourable conditions for raising rape, sunflower and other oil-bearing cultures it is economically profitable to use car fuels, produced by vegetable or animal oils. This process has been growing fast in the last few years.

Dozens of thousand of tonnes of biodiesel per year are used for transportation and other purposes in the country. In contemporary ecological plant-growing the protection of the soils from contamination is significant in order to answer the requirements for organic farming. The agricultural transport and machinery in organic farming will be required to use 100 percent organic fuels (biodiesel, ethanol, biopetroleum), which are not contaminating the soil, the ground waters and the air in order to guarantee ecologically pure production.