Biofuels

The mobility energy mega trend is driven by emission reduction and by the increased use of bio fuels. Fuels vary considerably around the world including bio-diesel blends, bio-ethanol blends from different renewable sources and second generation bio-fuels.

Engine and component OEM’s must produce vehicles and parts which operate satisfactorily with the current biofuels concentration in hydrocarbons fuels, but also with the future trends in terms of concentrations and qualities of bio fuels

Indeed, the bio fuels industry is growing fast, new production processed & sources of biofuels are appearing thus engine and component OEM’s must anticipate compatibilities of new generation biofuels & their products.

Gasoline

• Ethanol : E10, E15, E20, E50, E85, E95
• 2nd generation Ethanol : cellulosic ethanol produced from agricultural residues
• Brasil : E22, E24, E93, Typo C
• Methanol : M10, M15, M30, M85 blends
• IPA : IPA 10, IPA15 blends
• E100 : AEAC, AEHC, EN 15376, Non denatured ethanol
• Alkylate/Bio-blends

Diesel

• FAME (EN14214) : B5, B10, B20, B30, B100…
• RME : B5, B10, B20, B30, B100…
• SME : B5, B10, B20, B30, B100…
• GTL : Gaz To Liquid
• BTL : Biomass To Liquid
• HVO: Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils
• Used Frying Oils regenerated

Kerosene

• FT- SPK : Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene produced from Fisher Trop process
• HEFA : hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids

Sunliquid 20

Haltermann Carless joined forces with Clariant and Mercedes-Benz to road test Clariant’s sunliquid® process that converts wheat straw into cellulosic second generation bio-fuel ethanol providing a product which is virtually CO2-neutral. Haltermann Carless then blends the ethanol with conventional fuel components and produces the innovative high octane fuel which gives optimal efficiency without competing with food production or agricultural acreage. This straw-based fuel is compatible with existing engines and was road tested for a year using Mercedes-Benz cars, with the aim of demonstrating that the 20% ethanol fuel is ready for market and technically compatible with a variety of vehicles.

sunliquid® is an innovative biotechnological process for manufacturing cellulosic ethanol from agricultural residues such as cereal straw, corn stover or sugarcane bagasse. During the fully integrated process, highly optimised, feedstock-specific biocatalysts split cellulose and hemicellulose into fermentable sugars under stable processing conditions in high yields. The process-integrated production of biocatalysts offers flexibility and reduces production costs. In the next step, an optimised fermentation organism allows both C5 and C6 sugars to be converted into ethanol, so increasing the ethanol yield by around 50%. An innovative purification process developed by Clariant is instrumental in enabling all the energy required for the process to be derived from the insoluble residue lignin. The resulting cellulosic ethanol saves around 95% of CO2 emissions compared to fossil-derived gasoline.

Clariant, Haltermann Carless and Mercedes-Benz have tested a fuel of the future in a fleet test, where initial results prove the high quality and excellent properties of sunliquid® 20 fuel (contains 20% ethanol coming from straw). With its first-class combustion properties, sunliquid® 20 improves engine efficiency so that its 4% lesser energy content, as compared to E10, is more than compensated. For drivers, this means with sunliquid® 20, the sustainability of the fuel (reduced CO2 emissions) is increased significantly whilst consumption remains the same.

In addition to first-class performance, the 50% improvement in particle count emissions of sunliquid® 20 in contrast to the EU reference fuel EU5 is notable. Furthermore, the cellulosic ethanol in sunliquid® 20 demonstrates especially high greenhouse gas emission savings of up to 95% across the entire value chain (well-to-wheel perspective) without competing with food production or agricultural acreage. Consumers could fill now their tanks with an eco-friendly fuel, one which can be introduced without making any adjustments to the gas station infrastructure in Europe and without compromising fuel range and driving comfort.