The first public fuel station is in Mannheim is offering Super E20 fuel. It is an ethanol manufacturer’s fleet experiment. However, the addition of bioethanol remains controversial.
Special fuel cards and a lock on the pump are intended to prevent drivers from filling up with fuel that has not yet been approved. As of today, only 85 selected vehicles can be filled with Super E20 at the octane filling station. It is a test run on in-house vehicles from Südzucker AG, based in Mannheim. VW and BMW vehicles in particular, but also models from Seat, Skoda and Audi are part of the fleet test.
For three years, the premium gasoline was “extensively tested for emission parameters and technical parameters, primarily to find out how vehicles tolerate the new E20,” said Jörg Willhauck, company spokesman for CropEnergies AG – a company that went public in 2006 and is majority owned by belongs to the Südzucker Group. In the test phase starting today, the main focus is on mixed fueling, CO2 savings and public relations, according to the company.
More ethanol for more climate protection?
Ethanol blends in fuels have been used for decades to reduce the share of fossil fuels and to reduce dependence on oil imports. With E5 the proportion of bioethanol is a maximum of five percent, with E10 it is between zero and ten percent.
With the new E20, the manufacturer wants to add no less than 20 percent so that “maximum CO2 savings” are possible, says Willhauck.
The company promises that mainly fodder wheat is used for production, which is “not of bread quality”. “We take the starch out of the wheat, which is then converted into sugar. The sugar is then fermented and processed into bioethanol,” explains Willhauck.
Original story at Germany's first gas station offers E20 gasoline - Globe Echo
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