Running my car on biofuels: update

For a while now I have been mixing regular unleaded with E85 bioethanol in my cars in an effort to cut carbon emissions and cut costs. I have now taken the plunge and gone 100% E85, with only a slight modification to my car, and the conclusion is as before: so far, so good. Only this time, even better.

To pick up the story, I sold my large Germanic autobahn-basher and followed the big trend in automotive design – downsizing. I’ve bought a sport little number from a large Italian producer – not difficult to guess who that is – and already I am gaining efficiency. The old car, which had four doors and a big boot, weighed nearly 1,800kilos, and the new one, which also has four doors but a far smaller boot, weights 975kg. It’s no Lotus, but it’s certainly packing a far smaller footprint, and that has a corresponding effect on fuel economy however hard I drive it.

So, on to the bioethanol part. The small, black box that I bought for nearly 400 euros plugs into the car’s onboard computer port and after about one minute of blinking lights it is ready to go. The box stays plugged in, and so the makers claim, allows a better calculation of the fuel feed to the engine, making life in the E85 lane a possibility. In all other ways the engine is a regular petrol one. Running one of those on nothing but E85 does tend to starve the engine a little, but the smart little box hopefully removes that worry. Nearly 400 euros is a lot to spend, but at 85 euro cents a litre and with at least 50% saving in carbon emissions I think it should begin to pay for itself quite soon, while also giving me a little green feelgood factor into the bargain. As for the car, it runs just fine, fuel economy is a little down, but overall there’s really nothing to it. How bioethanol may impact the engine long-term is an open question – if there are any problems I’ll be blogging about it right away.

Finally a look ahead: Next month’s programme is all about biofuels, and I will have my chance to see how sugar beet is turned into bioethanol for myself very soon, as well as how production of advanced second-generation biofuels is racing ahead.