Biofuels

In the movie Back to the Future, Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown uses banana peels and other trash to fuel his futuristic DeLorean time machine. While time travel may still elude us, using biological matter to fuel vehicles is definitely a technology for today. Such matter is called biofuel. By definition, biofuels are fuels derived from any recently dead biological material, as opposed to utilizing material that died hundreds of millions of years ago as fossil fuels do.

Sustainability in action

Biofuels offer several benefits. They are making advances to become cost competitive with gasoline and diesel, and can provide a new revenue source for farmers. Biofuels also burn cleaner and can offset fossil fuel usage, thus reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

There are two main biofuels that aim to reduce these emissions. The first is biodiesel, a non-petroleum-based diesel fuel consisting of short-chain alkyl (methyl or ethyl) esters that are made of vegetable oil or animal fat. Biodiesel can be used alone or blended with traditional petro-diesel in unmodified diesel-engine vehicles. Using biodiesel fuels substantially reduces the contaminating emissions produced by conventional diesel fuel.

The second is bioethanol, a fuel made of enthanol (ethyl alcohol), the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. It is easy to manufacture and comes from very common crops such as sugar cane and corn. Because it is so easy produce, bioethanol is an increasingly common alternative to gasoline in many parts of the world. In North America, most gasoline includes about 10 percent ethanol with some regional stations offering a blend with 85 percent ethanol.

Many have embraced the use of ethanol in North America because it is produced domestically, and is a cleaner fuel source for vehicles, additionally, it can provide a new source of income for farmers.  If you have a diesel vehicle, you can use biofuels today. Find a map of biodiesel retailers across the U.S. on the National Biodiesel Board website. A map of biodiesel retailers in Canada can be found on the BioFleet website.

ACCIONA's commitment

ACCIONA’s biodiesel plants in Navarre and Bilbao, Spain, produce nearly 300,000 tons of biofuel. The 77,000 tons produced in Navarre will avoid the equivalent C02 emitted by 60,000 cars driven approximately 10,000 miles a year. In its Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, plant, ACCIONA produces over 28,000 tons of bioethanol.