Biofuels will be the only serious solution to reducing carbon emissions from road transport fuel, a leading official from oil giant BP said yesterday (March 9, 2011).
Oliver Mace head of strategy, regulatory affairs and communications at BP’s Biofuels unit, told a conference organised by Agra Europe: "There is no other alternative that I can really subscribe to in terms of decarbonizing road transport."
According to news agency, Reuters, he also went on to say that the fuel was likely to account for at least 12 per cent of road transport fuel by 2030, as the industry looks to reduce reliance of dwindling fossil fuel supplies.
Mace said that electricity may play a role "one day" and biogas may also be in the mix, but "to get into 10 per cent, 20 per cent of (global) consumption we believe there is only one game in town today and that is biofuels."
BP’s forecast that 12 per cent of road transport fuel will come from biofuels by 2030, is now a "conservative view" according to Mace.
Mace acknowledged, however, that biofuels had become "embattled in a big controversy, especially here in Europe."
Biofuels have been blamed for pushing up food prices, and actually causing a rise in carbon emissions, particularly when natural habitat has been cleared to facilitate production of energy crops.
However Mace said the debate needed centre on distinguishing between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ biofuels, not whether or not there should be biofuels at all.
"I am a firm believer of biofuels done well and a stern condemner of biofuels done badly," he told Reuters.
A BP joint venture, Vivergo, is currently responsible for building a new bioethanol plant in Hull in eastern England which Mace said would be the biggest in Britain.
Mace told Reuters the plant will use more than 1 million metric tons of wheat to produce bioethanol. He said the plant is expected to produce carbon savings in excess of 60 per cent compared to fossil fuel alternatives.
Read the full article on Reuters.
