Saab helps save the planet
Saab is helping save the planet by launching its “dual fuel” cars at the Geneva Auto Show.
Bio-ethanol is made from renewable materials such as corn or sugar beet and Saab created vehicles that can run on bio-ethanol or petrol, or a combination of the two. The CO2 emitted from a bio-fuel car is neutralised by the crop that has been grown to replace it.
Making engines work efficiently on 100 percent bio-ethanol is no easy job because engines prefer hot fuel. Saab created a system to heat the fuel so that the engine will be able to work on 100 percent bio-ethanol. Saab says that the 1.8 Bio Power engine in its 9-3 emits 50 to 70 percent less CO2 than its 1.8 petrol engine equivalent yet produces 17% more power running on E85 (85 percent ethanol/15 percent petrol mix).
Manufacturers could make their vehicles bio-ethanol friendly by mildly altering them. The fuel tank needs to be stainless steel and bits of the engine would have to be altered. This would, however, send car prices up by about R8400.
Toyota Prius has become an automotive celebrity while the Saabs that run on greener fuel has stayed on the background. Bio-ethanol can have very negative effects if its source crops supplant subsistence crops or natural ecosystems, leading to a front-page warning in The Independent in London about “The Big Green Fuel Lie”.
According to the NFU, in the UK there’s enough excess straw, which goes to waste, to power up to 77 percent of all UK new car sales on E85. According to BMW, who is looking at hydrogen as its wonder fuel for the future, bio-fuels can’t supply more than 10 percent of transport needs. In contrast, a group of experts from Imperial College in London says that between a third and half of the world’s transport needs could be met by second-generation bio-fuels.
The main problem is the financial impact that bio-fuel cars will have. It will become too expensive to buy these cars and it will also be less cost-effective to run them. Saab isn’t saying how much heavier these vehicles are on fuel, but Ford reckons it’s about 25 percent.
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