Turn Waste Into Fuel

The Observer - UK

The technology - created with European Union money - uses corn stubble and other farm waste as basic ingredients for making ethanol. This can then be used as a substitute for petrol.

We have to find alternatives - and quickly.'

The project uses biomass, organic matter from plants. Sources include wood, crops, and agriculture and forestry waste. Traditionally, they have been burnt as a fuel or just to get rid of them, though corn stubble is now ploughed into the ground in the UK because of the impact of burning on the environment.


More than 75 million tonnes of stubble are left each year from Europe's harvests. Fermenting it all would create 250,000 million litres of ethanol, equal to the world's entire current production.

In addition, such fuel does not increase global warming. The carbon dioxide released by burning ethanol is absorbed by the corn, spruce and willow plants which are grown the following year, so the gas is effectively recycled.

Ethanol is only a partial substitute for petrol, which can be diluted by 10 per cent by it.

The mixture will burn happily in a normal car engine. 'It may not seem much but a 20 per cent cut in oil imports would be a significant help for Europe,' said Reczey.

Ethanol: the facts

* More than five billion litres of ethanol are used as fuel in Canada and the US a year, about 1 per cent of the petrol volume.

* All cars made since 1970 can use up to 10 per cent of ethanol in their petrol without changes.

* Henry Ford designed his 1908 Model T to run on the chemical.