Ethanol

The most urgent challenge facing humanity requires swift and consistent action: Man-made climate change! Reducing CO2 emissions, as prescribed by the EU's "Renewable Energy Directive", requires massive efforts from all parties involved. The transport sector is still 95% based on fossil fuels. Electromobility is slowly gaining momentum, but it will be decades before a significant share is achieved. Sustainable ethanol made from renewable raw materials is already helping to reduce greenhouse gases and will continue to be an important part of the solution in the future. Super E10 - with 10% ethanol content, introduced in Germany in 2011 - has been the reference fuel for petrol engines since 2015. But "normal" super petrol E5 has also contained up to 5 % ethanol for many years.

Other areas of application for our ethanol include the beverage, food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. There are further applications in the chemical industry. Here, the demand for high-purity alcohol that is as CO2 neutral as possible is increasing.

In addition to strict sustainability guidelines on the origin of biomass, the "Renewable Energy Directive" already requires that renewable ethanol saves at least 50% CO2 over the entire production process compared to fossil fuels. At CropEnergies, we have achieved savings of over 70% thanks to our highly efficient production plants, and we will gradually increase this figure through further efficiency improvements and the increased use of waste and residual materials. But the reduction in greenhouse gases is not the only advantage of European ethanol. It has a significantly higher octane rating than petrol, which means that the higher the ethanol content in petrol, the lower the emissions of particulate matter and nitrogen oxides due to better combustion. E10 is now available in 19 EU countries and the UK and saves around 3 million tonnes of CO2 per year in Germany alone. In the future, higher blends of ethanol in fuel will be possible, and newer petrol engines are already approved for fuel with 20% ethanol (E20).

Our ethanol is produced exclusively from European biomass. Local raw materials - normally 200 km around the plants - avoid long transport routes and create jobs and added value in rural areas. Fossil oil reserves are conserved and dependence on oil-producing countries is reduced. In addition, during ethanol production, one ton of GMO-free protein feed is produced for every ton of ethanol produced, thus reducing the need for imports of protein-rich animal feed.