Fuel from household waste a step closer

Aug 13 2008 by Barry Turnbull, Liverpool Daily Post

INEOS, the world’s third-largest chemical company, says it will be able to run cars on household waste within two years.

The company, with a base in Runcorn, plans to produce commercial quantities of bioethanol fuel from biodegradable municipal waste which can be used to power vehicles or be mixed with traditional fuels.

The technology uses a simple three-stage process. The waste is superheated to produce gases. Then, through a patented process, the gases are fed to naturally occurring bacteria, which efficiently produce ethanol. Finally, the ethanol is purified to make the fuel.

Car companies have already developed engines that can run efficiently on both bioethanol and conventional fuels. Up to now, the challenge has been that bioethanol is manufactured primarily from food crops and this has raised concerns on price and availability.

Dr Geraint Evans, technology manager for the UK’s National Non Food Crops Centre. He said: “This is a breakthrough in two areas.”