ScienceNOW’s daily news reported yesterday on a study that claims that biofuels are more efficient if they are turned into electricity than used in cars.

It’s an interesting thought: if we turn the crops and wood chippings into electricity instead of bio-ethanol, and then drove electric cars, this could well have a positive change on the emissions.

Turning biofuels into electricity on a large scale could well mean that the CO2 emissions even better controlled, thus meaning less of it getting back into the atmosphere.

I wonder whether other studies will support their claims?

I came across an article in the USA Today archive recently.  It compares the prices of bio-ethanol to normal petrol and in particular to diesel.

I had originally planned to buy a diesel car before I found out about bio-ethanol.  I wanted the cheaper fuel and the ability to drive further on one tank of it.

But in Germany, diesel cars are taxed more.  So unless you manage a certain amount of kilometers each year, the saving on the fuel is cancelled out by the higher tax.

These days, diesel drivers are unhappy that the price of their fuel has almost matched that of normal petrol, making it bizarrely more expensive to drive a diesel car than a petrol one.  The only benefit is the distance that you can get without having to fill up again.

Since I tend not to drive long distances with my bio-ethanol car, it looks like I took the right decision after all.

The EU has targets for biofuels.  They would like to see them have a 5.75% share of the road market by 2010 and 10% by 2020.

2010?  That’s next year!  Is that very likely?

Not if the “Environmental Audit Committee” in the UK has anything to do with it.  Last year, they said that the EU should forget about their targets, as they claim that biofuels are damaging the environment instead of saving it.

Read more about their findings at BBC News.

Who hasn’t dreamt about a flying car after watching films like “Back to the future” and “The Man with the Golden Gun“?

One possibility for that dream to become a reality may come from the Dutch Aerospace Laboratory, as this article reports.  Their solution is more of a combined car and helicopter, which would fly in GPS-controlled air corridors.  And yes, apparently it will be able to run on bio-ethanol.

I wonder how long it will be, until I can fly to my customers?