search
date/time
Yorkshire Times
A Voice of the Free Press
frontpagebusinessartscarslifestylefamilytravelsportsscitechnaturefictionCartoons
5:56 PM 1st September 2021
cars
Opinion

E10 Petrol: New 'Green' Petrol A Cheap And Easyway To Reduce CO2 Emissions

 
With the introduction of E10 petrol as the standard unleaded petrol at UK petrol stations today Jun Peng, visiting Professor of Sustainable Engineering at the University of Bedfordshire, says this is a small step in the right direction providing the ethanol in the E10 fuel is actually biofuel:

“We have to be realistic about the impact of this measure. Moving from E5 to E10 petrol will not reduce a car’s carbon emissions, across its life cycle, by any more than 3%. Nevertheless, the shift is an easy way to reduce CO2 emissions for road vehicles.

“We have to hope that the ethanol being added to make the E10 actually does come from biofuel though. It is possible to make ethanol from reformed fossil fuels. If we use this we’ll actually be increasing CO2 emissions by making the switch to E10.

“The move from E5 to E10 should not be a big problem for most cars. Vehicles less than 10 years old should be able to use the new fuel without any noticeable reduction in efficiency. Overall it is a very sensible measure. We shouldn’t exaggerate the drawbacks but neither should we comfort ourselves that this will make a great deal of difference to our CO2 emissions targets.”