E10 Fuel Rollout Debacle In Germany As Drivers Refuse To Buy Fuel

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04/19/2011

Out of Gas
E10 Debacle Puts the Brakes on Biofuels

By Dietmar Hawranek and Alexander Neubacher
Photo Gallery: Tanked
Photo Gallery: 3 Photos
DPA

An attempt to introduce the biofuel mixture E10 in Germany has been a disaster, after motorists refused to buy the supposed green gasoline. Car makers, oil companies and politicians have all tried to blame each other for the mess. Even environmentalists oppose the new fuel.
Info

There is a lot of work to be done these days in Schwedt, a town in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, where the Druzhba pipeline -- which transports oil from Russia to Central Europe -- ends. The odor of Siberian oil hangs in the air. The Easter travel season is coming up and Germany's filling stations need gasoline. Production is in full swing at the PCK refinery in Schwedt.

Not much is going on at the bioethanol refinery, however, where two tanks are filled to capacity with up to 100 million liters (26 million gallons) of the plant-based fuel, enough to make a billion liters of biofuel mixture. But demand is much lower than expected, which is why the entire production process now has to be shifted away from E10 -- a mixture of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline -- and back to the old super unleaded fuel.

German motorists are to blame for the commercial failure of the supposed green gasoline. The first attempt by politicians to foist a product that is both expensive and environmentally questionable on consumers has failed. German Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen, who had earlier argued in favor of the fuel, is now as embarrassed as the petroleum industry and the auto industry. "Consumers have made up their minds," says Volker Kauder, chairman of the parliamentary group of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU). "With people starving in many countries, wheat doesn't belong in our gas tanks."

Of course, drivers are the ones paying for the setback. Oil companies, like Aral, Shell, Esso and Jet, have already raised their prices to recoup their additional costs. According to industry information, the cost of converting refineries and filling stations to E10 was in the triple-digit millions, while reversing the development is unlikely to be much cheaper.

EDIT

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,757812,00.html

[AndyTiedye]

1. We Have E10 in California. Saw a 10% Drop in Gas Mileage at the Changeover

I wasn't too fond of the MTBE we were using before that though, probably worse for the environment than ethanol.

Our mileage did drop by at least 10% when they changed our gas to E10 though.

[AlecBGreen]

2. its funny you mention that

I had heard through the grapevine that E10 lowered your fuel efficiency and was hard on your engine. One gas station in town has pure gasoline at the same price as E10 so I tried it out and my car went from 26mpg to 29mpg. I have kept filling up @ this station and have maintained this increase in fuel efficiency (~10%). Im a believer.

[madokie]

4. We bought a new f150 in 98 and it got 15.4 mpg at a steady 65 mph with straight gas

couple weeks ago we went to the city and back, 260 miles round trip and we got 15.1 mpg at a steady 75 mph with the 10% ethanol blend. So I'm not so sure that it effects all vehicles the same, didn't seem to cause a drop in our gas mileage as we were traveling 10 mph faster this last time which could explain the slight drop in mpg. That plus the truck is now 12 years old with 136 thousand miles on it.

[RC]

3. As far as I know Both Missouri and Kansas have laws dictating that

E-10 only be sold at all gas stations. I can't find a gas station that sells real gasoline in Kansas City.

[Nihil]

5. That's the power of your agricultural lobby at work!

HFCS in your food and E-10 in your petrol tanks.

Whoopee! :-(

(ETA: Sorry, I forgot about the lovely taxpayer-funded subsidies
that are going to all involved parties in this as well!)