Bio-ethanol production in the UK

Ethanol (ethyl alcohol) is the same type of alcohol which is found in alcoholic drinks. Anhydrous ethanol (ethanol with less than 1% water) can be blended with petrol in varying quantities up to pure ethanol (E100), and most spark-ignited petrol engines will operate well with mixtures of 10% ethanol (E10).

A huge new bio-ethanol production facility is to be built at Wilton on Teesside, in the north-east of England. The plant, which will be built by green fuels firm Ensus, is scheduled to start production in early 2009. Shell Trading will off-tak its bio-ethanol production while Glencore will provide all of the grain requirements. It will produce over 400m litres of bio-ethanol a year, using established technology to ferment and distil wheat grain into bio-ethanol. The new plant in Teesside will dramatically increase the production capabilities and the development of the bio-ethanol industry in the UK. A second facility in Henstridge, Somerset will be built by Green Spirit Fuels subject to their being able to find partner willing to take equity in the company under current market conditions.

Energy Crops for bio-ethanol

Ethanol can be mass-produced by fermentation of sugar or by hydration of ethylene from petroleum and other sources. Current interest in ethanol mainly lies in bio-ethanol, produced from the starch or sugar in a wide variety of crops. There is in principal no shortage of land for this form of energy production. However because of the low efficiency of conversion of solar energy to bio-ethanol the amount of land needed for significant energy production is considerable - and is at least inappropriate to use land which is required for growing food. A further drawback is that higher production costs make bio-ethanol uncompetitive given current fossil fuel processes.

Globally, bioethanol is the most commonly available green car fuel due to its popularity in Brazil where cars are powered by sugar cane ethanol. Ford, Volvo and Saab produce ''Flex-Fuel'' Vehicles (FFVs) that run on any percentage petrol-ethanol blend (up to E85) or on conventional petrol for the European market: more than 15,000 flex-fuel versions of the Ford Focus have been sold in Sweden, where there are nearly 200 filling stations selling E85 bioethanol fuel.

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