Before electric vehicles and hybrids became a mainstream proposition there was biofuel - and for a number of years it led the way as the primary proposed solution to waning fossil fuel stores.
Car industry luminaries like Ford, Bentley and Saab – as with most manufacturers to some degree – threw their weight behind biofuel as a valid alternative to diesel and petrol; promising plentiful supplies of crop-based bio-ethanol that would act as carbon sinks while growing, offsetting the carbon dioxide emitted in their burning in cars.
Governments across Europe and in North America backed biofuel too, offering subsidies to production companies and lowering the costs for users.
But almost overnight biofuels dropped off the radar, culminating in the US government’s recent announcement that it could follow the UK’s example and pull the plug on its biofuel subsidies.
We look at the swift rise and fall of biofuels and wonder whether they’re destined become another alt-fuel consigned to the automotive scrapyard.
What is biofuel?
As the name suggests, biofuel is a type of fuel which comes from natural sources, namely those that are biodegradable and non-toxic, although the term has been widened to include fuels derived from recycling oil-derived products.
It’s first important to understand the distinction between recycled biodiesel and crop-based bioethanol.
What is Biodiesel?
Biodiesel is sourced from vegetable oils, surplus cooking oil and animal fats which go through a process called transesterification that, once purified, leaves an oil that can be mixed with mixed with diesel to make a biodiesel blend.
This biodiesel can be can be used in the majority of diesel engines with little or no modification.
Adding diesel to the mix makes biodiesel more usable, as in its purest form biodiesel becomes too viscous in low temperatures; diesel lowers the temperatures at which it can be used at.
Biodiesel can be sourced from all manner of different crops with at least 40 options available ranging from corn to mustard seed, algae and even used tyres.
What is Bioethanol?
Alternatively cars can run on bioethanol – a blend of alcohol and gasoline (petrol).
The alcohol is sourced from the fermentation of plant starches which means it can come from sugar cane, maize, corn, palms, jatropha and even sawdust.
Do people still use it?
In Europe, biodiesel is the most popular biofuel mainly because it can be used in any diesel engine once it has been mixed with diesel; as a result it’s available in most petrol stations on the continent.
Some manufacturers advise against high-concentration biodiesel use. However all fuel sold in the UK contains five per cent biofuel now – so in essence, everyone uses it.
Why did everyone get excited?
Manufacturers and scientists are still trying to find an alternative to fossil fuels which are as good in terms of performance as well as being more efficient and cleaner but have largely drawn a blank despite improvements in hybrids and electric vehicles.
Biofuels have long been suggested as a viable alternative to fossil fuels when, as early as 1916, Henry Ford commented, "All the world is waiting for a substitute for petrol. The day is not far distant when, for every one of those barrels of petrol, a barrel of ethanol must be substituted."
It wasn't until the end of the 20th century and into the 21st that scientists, environmentalists and industry experts got closer to effective biofuels, with the prospect of fuel that grows on trees and benefits the environment proving a draw for investment.
The theory of CO2 offsetting – with biofuel crops feeding off carbon dioxide while growing to potentially make their use carbon-neutral – presented biofuels as a possible magic bullet in terms of alternative fuels.
Offsetting
Biofuel was touted as a solution to CO2 emissions because it was thought to be carbon neutral – by consuming similar levels of CO2 while growing to the carbon emitted when burned – or less carbon-intensive as treating and burning fossil fuels.
That created a powerful bargaining tool for biofuel use, investment and research; however the reality of first-generation biofuels was found to be much less effective at reducing CO2 emissions; and conceivably more polluting, in terms of carbon and some other particulates, as petrol or diesel.
To create space for biofuel crops, including oil palm and sugar cane, vast areas of rainforest were destroyed, reducing the capacity of natural carbon sinks to absorb atmospheric CO2.
Areas such as rainforests and peat bogs are often referred to as carbon sinks because they store carbon from the atmosphere; when these are removed so is the capacity for CO2 absorption.
Which manufacturers got involved?
A number of manufacturers pursued biofuel development, with Ford, Bentley, Renault and Saab all getting behind the new fuel.
Bentley used the Geneva Motor Show in 2009 to unveil a FlexFuel model which could use either biofuel or gasoline as fuel and it boasted a 40 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions on previous ‘fossil fuel’ models.
Ford also released a bioethanol Focus and C-Max; while Renault and Saab also banged the biodiesel drum with models released in 2006 and 2007 when government subsidies commenced in the UK.
A number of manufacturers have persisted with Flexfuel cars – those that run on biodiesel or bioethanol – however the majority of car-makers have moved away from building flexfuel models.
As late as last year Volvo, Saab and Peugeot were still selling biofuel-capable models; however most combustion engines can run on biofuel after some minor engine tweaks.
What was the government subsidy?
The UK government was spending around £550m a year on biofuel subsidies as it paid producers of environmentally friendly biofuels for their work in the years leading up to 2010 when it was finally canned.
In terms of real world value, the subsidy translated into a 1.5 pence-per-litre discount on petrol or diesel, saving motorists around 60 pence- per-tank.
When governments became aware of problems relating to biofuel growth and use the subsidy was terminated and in its place is a £5,000 subsidy on electric vehicles.
Why was the UK government subsidy scrapped?
In 2008, Ruth Kelly, then Transport Secretary, said that the UK would slow its movement towards biofuels as more and more questions regarding their sustainability were raised by organisations including the United Nations.
A major concern surrounded biofuel’s life cycle as research came to light than suggested that producing one litre of biofuel required one litre’s worth of fossil fuel to synthesise it.
Some biofuel has also been shown to generate more nitrous oxide emissions than fossil fuels, which is hazardous to human health as well as the earth’s ozone layer.
Environmentalists also pointed to the growth of bioethanol plantations and their impact on biodiversity, food sources and sustainability.
Bioethanol production has also been shown to contribute to dwindling food sources and rising food prices as farmers produce more lucrative fuel crops, rather than food crops.
That has led critics to blame biofuels for famine and food price inflation, casting further doubt on the sustainability of bioethanol as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels.
There are also concerns that it is not as sustainable as was first predicted which is why governments are becoming more vocal in their support of alternative fuels including hydrogen as well as alt-fuels like electric vehicles.
Will we see a biofuel resurgence?
It seems unlikely that biofuel will regain anything like the levels of support it was shown first time round, especially with its last remaining stronghold – the USA – also growing cold on the fuel.
In light of the US debt crisis, congress is set to trim its spending to recoup some of the $1.3 trillion debt it finds itself in and the $7bn subsidy for biofuel looks at risk.
However Barack Obama has also recently invested $510 million in to biofuel study for use by the US Navy to reduce its reliance on foreign markets for fuel, which hints at the potential of the fuel.
While first generation biofuel has been all but ruled out, second generation biofuels are still being pursued by multiple researchers across the globe.
Second generation bioethanols look to use the off cuts and surplus materials gathered from crop and food production, including leaves, stems and pulp instead of purposefully growing crops.
It should therefore prevent the destruction of carbon sinks for fuel purposes however it is still some way off industrial use because of the energy required to extract starch from food by-products.
Another line of research in the industry focuses on algae because its carbohydrate content can be used to create bioethanol but it’s restricted to private use at the moment while research is also ongoing with tyres and household rubbish which could eventually fuel cars.
Until then it looks like EVs and hybrids will carry the alt-fuel burden.