24 January 2007
Fuels: USA steps up the use of bioethanol – Germany falls behind
Münster - In his State of the Union address yesterday, President George W. Bush announced his aim to reduce the United State’s dependence on oil imports and to cut the consumption of fossil fuels by 20 percent until 2017. For this purpose, the use of renewable fuels such as biodiesel and bioethanol is to be raised to 35 billion US gallons (around 110 million metric tons) and more is to be invested in bioethanol plants. The USA’s bioethanol production capacity amounted to 5.4 billion gallons (16.1 million metric tons) at the end of 2006 and is expected to almost double to 10.8 billion gallons (32.3 million metric tons) by the beginning of 2008, the International Economic Platform for Renewable Energies (IWR) disclosed in Münster (Germany).
Roughly 35 metric tons of bioethanol were produced worldwide in 2005, 72% of which were accounted for by the USA (12.81 million metric tons) and Brazil (12.69 million metric tons). Europe’s contribution to the worldwide production of bioethanol was still negligible in 2005. With 0.72 million metric tons of ethanol, France is the biggest producer ahead of Spain (with 0.3 million metric tons) and Germany (with 0.28 million metric tons). In Germany, bioethanol fuel (for gasoline-operated vehicles) can be purchased as E85 from around 100 gas stations. According to the IWR bioethanol price index, the average price of E85 at the German gas pumps in January 2007 was 93.3 euro cents per liter.
Münster, January 24, 2007
Please contact Dr. Norbert Allnoch for any further information:
International Economic Platform for Renewable Energies (IWR)
Grevener Straße 75
48159 Munster
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)251 / 23 94 6-0
Fax: +49 (0)251 / 23 946-10
Email:
info@iwr.de
Internet:
http://www.iwr.de
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