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beer and wine-making. Ethanol can run in an ordinary petrol car engine
without modifications up to a 10 per cent blend level (some manufactur-
ers warrant 5 per cent only, some warrant up to 15 per cent). In Brazil,
where about 40 per cent of all fuel used is produced from sugar cane, all
cars operate with engines slightly modified to run on blends up to 25 per
cent ethanol. A car engine can be further modified (in its design and con-
figuration) to be “flex fuel”, that is to operate on fuel blends of anywhere
from 0 up to 85 per cent ethanol.
Biodiesel is produced from oil, which can be sourced from oil seed crops
such as rapeseed, soy bean, sunflower or jatropha and from waste oil such
as cooking oil. Water and other contaminants are removed from the oil
and the fatty acid content present in the oil is separated and transformed.
Biodiesel can be blended with conventional diesel in vehicles, usually in
a 5 per cent blend (B5).In some countries it is sold in blends up to 20 per
cent (B20) or in pure form (B100) that some specially modified diesel
vehicles can handle.
Biofuel production
Sources:
EarthTrends Environmental
Information Portal
, World Resources Institute,
2007 (using Worldwatch 2006; US Department
of Energy, 2006);
REN21, Renewables 2006
global status report
, Worldwatch Institute; F. O.
Licht world ethanol & biofuels report 2005.
India
Italy
Poland
Sweden
Germany
Denmark
France
Spain
Brazil
Colombia
United States
Canada
China
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Austria
Thousand million litres
16,5
0,5
2,0
0,1
Biodiesel
Ethanol