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EECA welcomes Mobil’s move to biofuels
11 June 2008
EECA welcomes Mobil’s move to
biofuels
The Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority
(EECA) today welcomed Mobil’s trial of two biofuel
blends.
Elizabeth Yeaman, Team Manager, Renewables and Energy Supply, said it was pleasing that Mobil was now joining Gull in offering New Zealand consumers a more environmentally friendly and sustainable choice when filling up their cars.
“Mobil is the first of the major oil companies to offer bioethanol-blended petrol and we commend them on starting to meet their sales obligations before the new legislation is passed,” she says.
Mobil is selling a 98 octane fuel containing up to 10% ethanol (E10), and a 91 octane fuel containing up to 3% ethanol. E10 and E3 will be available from Mobil’s Johnsonville station. The station is only selling the bioethanol blends. Four more stations in the lower North Island will begin offering biofuels over the coming weeks.
Bioethanol-blended petrol is a mix of ordinary petrol and a percentage of the more environmentally-friendly bioethanol.
Elizabeth Yeaman says that most new and many older vehicles can run on biofuel without any changes or modifications to the engine.
Mobil is using bioethanol sourced from sustainable Brazilian sugarcane.
“Brazilian sugarcane bioethanol is environmentally sustainable,” she says. “It does not affect world food prices and the sugarcane is grown 2,000km from the Amazon rainforest. Even when taking shipping of the ethanol into consideration, it offers almost a 75% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over ordinary petrol’.
A recent report commissioned by EECA found that Brazilian sugarcane biofuel is environmentally sustainable. The report can be viewed at www.eeca.govt.nz.
To find out if your car can use bioethanol blends visit www.aa.co.nz and to find out more about biofuels visit www.energywise.govt.nz and www.biofuels.govt.nz
ENDS
For a detailed report
on the sustainability aspects of Brazilian bioethanol visit
our website www.eeca.govt.nz/
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