From September 2021, UK forecourts will start selling something called E10 petrol. But what is it and why is it being introduced?
In a bid to reduce carbon emissions from petrol cars without drivers having to do anything different, the government has legislated that regular petrol can now include a 10 percent mix of ethanol – hence it’s called E10 – a biofuel. The idea being that because the ethanol is man-made (by fermentation) using waste product such as wood chippings or crop waste such as low-grade grain, it’s more sustainable than drilling for oil and refining to petrol.
In the UK we’re already using E5 in regular unleaded petrol (a five percent mix) and this is safe to use in all petrol cars. However, the move to E10 (a 10% mix of greener ethanol) could harm some older petrol cars built before 2011.
Government plan
The Government claims the move could cut transport CO2 emissions by 750,000 tonnes a year “the equivalent of taking 350,000 cars off the road”.
Commenting on the introduction of E10, transport secretary, Grant Shapps added: “We’re going further and faster than ever to cut emissions from our roads, cleaning up our air as we accelerate toward a zero-emission transport future.
“Although more and more motorists are driving electric vehicles, there are steps we can take to reduce emissions from the millions of vehicles already on our roads – the small switch to E10 petrol will help drivers across the country reduce the environmental impact of every journey, as we build back greener.
“The two petrol blends that are currently widely available in the UK contain no more than 5% ethanol, known as E5; the fuel being rolled out in September has up to 10%. Using bioethanol in place of traditional petrol can reduce CO2 emissions and, therefore, increasing the ethanol content of petrol could help us meet our climate change targets.
“A small number of older vehicles, including classic cars and some from the early 2000s, will continue to need E5 fuel, which is why supplies of E5 petrol will be maintained in the ‘super’ grade. We are advising motorists to use the new E10 compatibility checker to see if their vehicle is compatible.”
Check your car
With the vast majority of cars in everyday use being less than 10 years old, these drivers don’t need to worry about the change.
If you’ve got and older or classic car then you can check which type of fuel is okay on this government website.
If your car is one of the few that can’t, or shouldn’t, take E10 then you’ll be safest opting to fill with super unleaded.
Synthetic fuel
E10 isn’t the last liquid fuel that’s being developed. There are other synthetic fuels on the horizon but the issue here is the power needed to create them.
“The end-game is fully synthetic fuels,” according to Nick Molden, the co-founder of emissions testing firm Emissions Analytics.
“Until recently, electric vehicles were seen as the only option to cutting carbon emissions for light vehicles, but more recently the hydrogen lobby has got its act together and now also synthetic fuels which makes it a three-way fight for what will power cars in future.”
E10, at the tailpipe, is about the same as regular petrol in terms of emissions, says Molden. He points out the savings are upstream and depend on the provenance of its production, but if that’s accounted for then biofuels such as E10 are the “easy” option.
Molden believes E10 is just a stepping-stone to better things.
“It all comes down to the decarbonisation of the electricity grid,” he adds.
His point being that without green electricity we’re just shifting the problem from the tailpipe to the place the power is produced. This applies both to battery-electric cars, hydrogen and synthetic fuels. It’s obvious why this is the case for EVs, but both hydrogen and synthetic fuels production need power in the form of electricity.
“EVs claim to be the most efficient now because the loss between the electricity generation and use is less than for other fuels.
“In 10 to 20 years, when we have surplus green electricity, then we can use it to generate synthetic fuels. But that’s not now,” says Molden.
“However, there are scenarios where we will have surplus green electricity and those make battery EVs a stepping stone because batteries in vehicles are heavy and use a lot of raw materials; raw materials that are only available in a small number of place in the world.”
E10 isn’t the only synthetic fuel. E85 is available in the USA, according to Molden but engines need to be specially designed to work with it. However, E15 “would be okay” to use for most modern engines.
Shell has already developed a synthetic diesel called GTL and even raced a car on the fuel back in 2008.
There is one downside to E10, adds Molden: “Using it results in a 2% drop in fuel economy over petrol without any ‘E’ component.”
Longer term there is the possibility that we could have truly zero carbon ‘petrol’.
“We can ‘pull’ carbon from the air using green electricity and turn it into a liquid fuel then we have double win,” says Molden. “We’re not using fossil fuels and we’re taking CO2 out of the atmosphere.”
However, his favoured route forward is standard, non-plug in hybrids which he claims result in a 30% drop in CO2 with no change in behaviour. He claims this compares to a 50% drop in CO2 for full EVs and “single figures for E-fuels”.
He concludes: “This is why de-carbonisation of the grid should be the priority and then the different fuels can fight it out on a level playing field.”
Keyword: Can biofuels keep the internal combustion engine alive?