Holden is part of a consortium of private companies and the Victorian Government which will investigate the feasibility of establishing Australia’s first plant to produce ethanol fuel.
Other joint venture companies are Caltex, Coskata, Mitsui and Veolia.
The plant would be capable of turning material such as household rubbish and building waste into more than 200 million litres of ethanol per year. Ethanol is blended into an alternative fuel called E85 – a mixture of 85 per cent ethanol and 15 per cent regular petrol.
Holden will introduce Australia’s first locally-produced flex-fuel vehicles later this year. In North America, General Motors is the leading producer of flex-fuel vehicles with more than 3.5-million E85-capable cars on the road.
English manufacturer Bentley recently announced its premium luxury vehicles have been engineered to run on E85.
To support the new flex-fuel Holdens, Caltex will install E85 pumps in 30 metropolitan and regional service stations later this year with plans for 100 inside 12 months.
Coskata is a leading American biofuel company with a process to produce ethanol from material such as agricultural waste and household rubbish.
“Our vision is that this technology will, in time, cut Australia’s dependence on petrol by up to 30 per cent and make a major contribution to sustainable motoring and greenhouse gas reduction,” explained Richard Marshall, Holden’s Energy and Environment Director.
