Question 15

Biofuel raises global dilemmas

The massive depots at Wessex Grain's sprawling processing plant in Henstridge are filled to the brim, not only with locally grown wheat, but also with hope for a more environment-friendly future.

Here, the Wessex Grain subsidiary Green Spirit Fuels has just been given planning permission to create Britain's first bioethanol plant, which will eventually convert 340,000 tonnes of locally grown wheat per year into 131 million litres of ethanol.

And since the government's Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation demands that 5% of all motorcar fuel must come from renewable sources by 2010, bioethanol will be used to fuel a growing number of cars on British roads, insists Green Spirit Fuel's finance director, Arthur Llewellyn.

"The UK will need 10 production plants like the one in Henstridge to meet the government's requirements," he says.

Ordinary cars can run on blends of 5% biofuel and 95% petrol, and this is quickly and silently emerging as a standard fuel at Britain's service stations.

But some of the ethanol will be mixed with just 15% petrol to produce a fuel dubbed E85 (since it contains 85% bioethanol), which can be used by specially biofuel-enabled cars, like the Ford Focus flex-fuel or the Saab Biopower.

Source: BBC News 17^th January 2006 (adapted)

Questions How many litres of ethanol per tonne of wheat? If 131 million litres of ethanol = 5% of all motorcar fuel, how much is the total of fuel? How much petrol is there in E85? If all fuel used is E85 and 131 million litres of ethanol are sold, how much petrol is also sold?