Fuel from the fields

Angela Merkel's government dilutes gasoline

By the will of the German federal government, German drivers will be forced to gradually increase their biofuel consumption. Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel and Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer presented in Berlin late last week a strategy for the use of plant-based fuel additives, which will increasingly find their way into transport fuel tanks in the medium term. The volume of environmental impurities in traditional diesel fuel or gasoline will increase by 2010 from the current 5 to 10%, and by 2020 their share in the fuel used will reach 20%.

The goal of this ambitious goal is not so much to relieve the wallets of car owners, but to reduce the level of greenhouse gas production by vehicles. Moreover, the Germans intend to make additional self-restraints: firstly, biofuel should be made exclusively from plant waste and, secondly, control over its origin should be strengthened in the future.

The strategy of strengthening the role of biofuels in Germany was also supported by the Union of the German Automotive Industry. Its president, Matthias Wissmann, expressed full confidence at the presentation that a rapid increase in the share of biofuel in gasoline (this is, as a rule, bioethanol, produced in Germany mainly from grain crops) is quite possible. Diesel, the bioadditives for which are made from rapeseed, is a different matter. According to automakers, technically this type of fuel can be diluted with biosubstances by no more than 7%. However, in this case, the authors of the strategy hope to get closer to the ten percent standard: the missing 3% in such a “fuel cocktail” for diesel cars will be ordinary vegetable oil enriched with hydrogen.

In the long term, increasing attention will be paid to the use of so-called second-generation biofuels. This is a fuel produced synthetically from wood, straw or waste from wastewater treatment plants. According to the presented strategy, no later than the middle of the next decade, this technology should exist as an alternative along with traditional methods of gasoline production.

The strategy specifically emphasizes an important requirement: “fuel from the fields” should in no case be competitive with food production. Special control will be exercised over the supply of biofuel, both of German origin and foreign. Products made only in “sustainable plantings” can be used. This restriction arose due to criticism that huge swamp areas are often burned to produce biofuel, and thousands of hectares of tropical forest are destroyed. For the purpose of certification of bioproducts, bilateral agreements will be concluded with the most important supplying countries, such as, for example, Brazil. True, the Germans are aware that by implementing such demands, they may find themselves in conflict with WTO rules. “In this case, these rules will need to be challenged,” says Minister Sigmar Gabriel.

The strategy for the production and use of automotive biofuels will also bring changes to the lives of European peasants. In any case, as Minister of Agriculture Horst Seehofer noted, the prospect of ending the so-called conservation of land is real. Now, in order to avoid excessive overproduction of agricultural products, German farmers are encouraged by tax breaks if they do not sow agricultural land. It is expected that in the next two months a decision will be made at the EU level to repeal this provision. In Germany, about 13% of the sown area is currently used for the production of bioenergy crops. In the coming years, this figure may double.

Yuri Shpakov, Berlin