EU might free up land for biofuel crops
Monday, 30 July 2007
PARIS, July 29 (AFP): Biofuels, destined to partially offset a coming oil shortage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, will require much more farm land, forcing the European Union to cultivate fields that have lain fallow.
The European Union wants biofuels to account for 10 per cent of the total of motor fuels in 2020, against an estimated 1.6 per cent last year.
There are two main kinds of biofuels: ethanols, sometimes called "biopetrol" and which are reserved for petrol-fueled engines; and biodiesels, used in diesel motors.
At the moment biodiesel is much more widely used than ethanol in Europe, in a proportion of 80 per cent to 20 per cent.
But that could change in the future with the appearance of vehicles equipped with "bi-combustible" or "flex fuel" engines that are to use a maximum of 85 per cent of ethanol, against 15 per cent of petrol. Ethanol is made from sugar beet, wheat, corn and sugar cane.
The process of making ethanol consists of extracting the sugar, directly or by hydrolysis in the case of wheat starch, fermenting it and transforming it.
Biodiesels, known also by the scientific name EMHV (methylic ester of vegetable oil), or diester, are extracted from colza, sun flower oil, soya and palm oils, and mixed with diesel fuels.
According to Jean-Francois Loiseau of Passion Cereales, a French trade association: "The establishment of biofuels will only mobilise five per cent of agricultural surfaces in Europe."
But with global cereal production falling, the European Commission said in July it would propose ending restrictions in effect since 1998 that had forced farmers to let some land lie fallow.
The European Union wants biofuels to account for 10 per cent of the total of motor fuels in 2020, against an estimated 1.6 per cent last year.
There are two main kinds of biofuels: ethanols, sometimes called "biopetrol" and which are reserved for petrol-fueled engines; and biodiesels, used in diesel motors.
At the moment biodiesel is much more widely used than ethanol in Europe, in a proportion of 80 per cent to 20 per cent.
But that could change in the future with the appearance of vehicles equipped with "bi-combustible" or "flex fuel" engines that are to use a maximum of 85 per cent of ethanol, against 15 per cent of petrol. Ethanol is made from sugar beet, wheat, corn and sugar cane.
The process of making ethanol consists of extracting the sugar, directly or by hydrolysis in the case of wheat starch, fermenting it and transforming it.
Biodiesels, known also by the scientific name EMHV (methylic ester of vegetable oil), or diester, are extracted from colza, sun flower oil, soya and palm oils, and mixed with diesel fuels.
According to Jean-Francois Loiseau of Passion Cereales, a French trade association: "The establishment of biofuels will only mobilise five per cent of agricultural surfaces in Europe."
But with global cereal production falling, the European Commission said in July it would propose ending restrictions in effect since 1998 that had forced farmers to let some land lie fallow.