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Here are the answers to some questions that are often asked about bioethanol and other renewable fuels. Please click on a question to see the answer.
Q: What is the impact on carbon emissions of using bioethanol as a fuel?
Q: Why don’t we provide encouragement to developing countries by buying all of our biofuels from the third world?
Q: The Wissington plant is quite small. Why isn’t British Sugar aiming to produce more bioethanol?
Q: Don’t we need to modify our cars to use bioethanol?
Q: With hydrogen technology developing fast, why bother to implement bioethanol now?
Q: With the efficiency of new cars improving all the time, do we really need to take any other action to reduce emissions?
Q: Is bioethanol the answer to all our transport emission problems?
Q: What is the impact on carbon emissions of using bioethanol as a fuel?
As a renewable fuel, bioethanol will provide significant environmental benefits over petroleum-derived transportation fuels, reducing overall environmental emissions of greenhouse gases.
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Q: Why don’t we provide encouragement to developing countries by buying all our biofuels from the third world?
The global demand for biofuels will be huge. As crude oil runs out and the world moves to mitigate the effects of climate change, biofuel production will be needed the world over. Many developing countries are trying to develop their own biofuel programmes so that they can avoid the import of crude oil as their economies develop. In the future we envisage a global trade in biofuels in which the countries with the greatest biomass resource will lead. These include the continents of Africa, Central and South America.
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Q: The Wissington plant is quite small. Why isn’t British Sugar aiming to produce more bioethanol?
The size of our plant is determined by the amount of raw material that is readily available from our sugar factory at Wissington. In June 2007 we announced the formation of a joint venture with BP and DuPont to develop and build a world scale bioethanol plant at Saltend, Hull. Back to top
Q: Don’t we need to modify our cars to use bioethanol?
Not at low blend levels. Any petrol car on the road in the UK today can run with up to 5% bioethanol included in the petrol without invalidating engine warranties.
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Q: With hydrogen technology developing fast, why bother to implement bioethanol now?
The beauty of bioethanol is that it can be introduced right now, using existing vehicles and the existing fuel supply infrastructure. This means that we can all benefit immediately from the emissions reductions offered. In the longer term, if the significant issues associated with hydrogen fuels, such as the supply infrastructure, can be overcome then bioethanol can be used in the manufacture of hydrogen for fuel. Bioethanol is therefore available right now and also valuable in the future.
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Q: With the efficiency of new cars improving all the time, do we really need to take any other action to reduce emissions?
Although the efficiency of cars is constantly improving, transport emissions are continuing to rise. The number of cars on the road is increasing as is the number of miles travelled by each car on the road and the improvements in car efficiency are not enough to halt the rise in transport emissions.
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Q: Is bioethanol the answer to all our transport emission problems?
Bioethanol can make a valuable and immediate contribution to the problem of transport emissions and their effect on climate change. However, bioethanol alone cannot solve the whole problem. We believe that the answer lies in a package of solutions which will include biofuels now, other alternative fuels in the future, hybrid and flexible cars with reduced emissions and sensible use of transport by all concerned.
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