Bio fuels are fuels for vehicles made out of crops and oils such as grain, sugar beat and oil seed rape. They have been developed to address the need to find new sources of energy from which to power our cars. Our current reliance on fossil fuels can not be guaranteed indefinitely. We need to meet our need for ‘greener’ sources of fuel. Currently there are two main types known as bio diesel and bio ethanol, which when blended in different proportions with petrol or diesel creates an effective fuel for our vehicles. Bio diesel can be made from palm oil, oil seed rape and even waste cooking oil.
It is currently being made in three different blends consisting of a five percent and a thirty percent diesel mix as well as a one hundred percent bio diesel which contains no fossil fuel. Bio ethanol is made from grain and sugar beat and is currently available in two blends. The first is the five percent blend which can be used in our current petrol engines and the second is the eighty-five percent blend which can be used in vehicles designed specifically to run on it. Bio fuels are starting to be introduced more widely and from 2010 it will become mandatory for fuel companies to start selling the five percent Bio fuels at the pumps. So what does this mean for drivers?
Initially the introduction of Bio fuels will not have a big impact on drivers. Research has shown that current vehicles on the roads are able to use a five percent bio fuel and ninety-five percent petrol mix in their cars without any damage being caused, so petroleum companies will create the new fuel hybrids which will be served at the pumps under the current names of unleaded and diesel. At present Bio fuels need to be imported but once production is able to take place in the UK then we may begin to see bio fuel pumps. Certain car manufacturers have predicted the rise of Bio fuels and have started designing and selling ‘flexi-fuel’ models which will be able to run off both conventional fuel as well as bio fuel.
Cars that don’t have this feature will not be able to use pure Bio fuels to power their cars and the costs of converting them would be extremely costly. At the moment the costs of buying a ‘Flexi-Fuel’ model car is slightly more expensive than a conventional car but as Bio fuels become more readily available this may change. As Bio fuels are considered to be better for the environment than fossil fuels we may find that cars that run on Bio fuels produce less harmful emissions and maybe eligible for reductions in the tax they pay on their vehicles. Other driving costs such as
motor insurance are not expected to be effected by bio fuel usage. Whilst Bio fuels have yet to become a main stream fuel source it is predicted that their presence will start to increase over the coming years. For drivers the change will be gradual and most people may not even realise that their petrol will contain Bio fuels. In the future however Bio fuels will provide us with a cleaner and more accessible fuel to power our vehicles.
Rochelle Martinez, Freelance Web Content Article Writer for three years. Some of her articles are about
http://www.quinn-direct.com.
