• Question: could we make a plant alternative for petrol

    Asked by anon-359343 on 21 Mar 2023.
    • Photo: Liz Barron-Majerik

      Liz Barron-Majerik answered on 21 Mar 2023:

      We already do! We can use plant products to make a wide range of biofuels

    • Photo: Caroline Stone

      Caroline Stone answered on 21 Mar 2023:

      If you are interested to read more about a country where bioethanol is a very widely used fuel, look up Brazil! There are cars sold there which can run on 100% bioethanol, or a mixture of ethanol and fossil fuel (petrol + ethanol).

      In the UK all “standard grade” petrol now says E10 on the pump, which means it is 90% petrol and 10% ethanol. You can read more about it here. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/e10-petrol-explained

    • Photo: Ian Adams

      Ian Adams answered on 21 Mar 2023:

      You can also make diesel from plant oils and companies like McDonalds actually run their delivery vans on used cooking oil. One of the problems with greater use of biofuels is that it takes land away from food production which will lead to food prices increases and shortages in developing countries

    • Photo: Sam Mugford

      Sam Mugford answered on 21 Mar 2023:

      Petrol is made from plants, but the petrol we get from underground oil has taken millions of years to form. Its not easy to make plants into petrol directly, but we can (and do) use plants as fuel in many ways- from burning wood in the fireplace to fermenting crop biomass to make ethanol, which can be used to run cars.

      None of these can yet compete with the price of petrol, so plants won’t free us from fossil fuels until the methods to make fuel from them improve and become cheaper.

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