Biofuel 'can help improve air quality now'

Biofuel technology is available to be used on the mass market and could be a way of improving air quality and reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the near future, it has been claimed.

Christophe Bourillon, director of communications at eBIO - the voice of the European bioethanol fuel industry, explained that, while there are many exciting innovations in the green technology market, many will not be available on a large scale for several years, or even decades.

"Electric vehicles are a great concept, hydrogen cars as well. But these developments are further away. Biofuel is a technology that can be used in today's cars," Mr Bourillon stated.

He also pointed out that the transport sector in Europe is the only industry on the continent where emissions have continued to grow since 1990.

As an example of how the technology can be integrated, Mr Bourillon pointed to Brazil. In the South American nation, more than 90 per cent of vehicles sold are flex-fuel, which means they can be run on ethanol or gasoline, he asserted.

Earlier this month, the Michigan State University released a study which claimed that diversity among biofuel crops adds value.

According to the researchers, planting a wide range of biofuel crops can be beneficial to insect life and create new ecosystems - something which should be taken into account when formulating biofuel policies, they argued.

Posted by Joseph Hutton