Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the viability of the use of E10 fuel in older vehicles and motorcycles.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The content of road transport fuel is governed by a combination of legislation and industry fuel standards, specifically the Motor Fuel (Composition and Content) Regulations and a European industry standard, in the case of petrol this is EN228. The EN specification incorporates the statutory requirements. The standards, and their maintenance, are industry agreed and informed by industry testing.
Petrol currently sold in the UK may contain up to 5% ethanol (known as ‘E5’). A revised industry fuel standard for petrol (EN228) was agreed and published by the British Standards Institution in 2013. This allows up to 10% bioethanol content (known as ‘E10’). This means that fuel suppliers are free to supply petrol containing anything from 0-10% bioethanol.Most petrol sold in the UK is E5 and therefore contains up to 5% bioethanol. E10 is not yet on sale in the UK.
Any decision to supply E10 is a commercial decision for fuel suppliers and we are not aware of any with immediate plans to introduce E10 into the UK. The Governmentrecognises the concerns of owners of some older vehicles and motorcycles that may not be compatible with E10, and the Department for Transport is in regular contact with fuel suppliers who in turn have been asked to write to us to give at least three months’ notice of plans to introduce this fuel. As yet no suppliers have indicated they have any immediate plans to introduce E10.
The Department is also in regular contact with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) who provide advice and data concerning the compatibility of UK petrol vehicles with E10 - which we are carefully monitoring.
The Motor Fuel (Composition and Content) Regulations 1999 were amended in 2010 to comply with EU Directive 2009/30/EC which requires the UK Government to ensure that petrol with a maximum ethanol content of 5% remained available until the end of 2013. This mechanism was extended in 2013 in the UK to ensure that E5 continues to be available until the end of 2016.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will place in the Library all information his Department holds comparing the (a) miles per gallon, (b) cost and (c) emissions of (i) premium and (ii) non-premium (A) diesel and (B) petrol.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Government publishes a broad range of information on their performance and emissions. To help consumers to make an informed choice when buying a new car, on fuel costs and environmental impact, the Vehicle Certification Agency produces guide lists. These estimate the fuel consumption, carbon dioxide (CO2), and other emissions performance figures of new cars, currently on the market in the UK. An electronic version of the latest edition has been provided to the House Library.
The Department for Transport produces a range of statistics on air quality and other emissions by mode and vehicle as part of the energy and environment datasets (TSGB03) on the gov.uk website. We do not publish comparative data on the air quality emissions associated with different fuel types. Information on all sources of air pollution can be found in the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory at http://naei.defra.gov.uk/. Progressively tighter emission standards are reducing pollutant emissions from all vehicles.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change also publishes weekly, monthly and annual typical prices of road fuels and petroleum products on the gov.uk website. This data includes super unleaded and non-premium unleaded petrol, and diesel.
The greenhouse gas emissions associated with diesel and petrol will vary depending upon the source of the materials and process used to produce both the fossil and renewable content of the fuel. The Department does not hold information on the carbon dioxide emissions associated with fossil diesel and petrol, and premium and non-premium grades. However, the Renewable Energy Directive sets a default energy content of 32 megajoules per litre for petrol and 36 for diesel, and a greenhouse gas emission of 83.8 grams of CO2 equivalent per megajoule - this equates to atypical emission per litre for petrol of 2681.6 grams of CO2 equivalent and 3016.8 grams of CO2 equivalent per litre for diesel.
Through the administration of the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation the Department collects information on the carbon and sustainability characteristics of the renewable content of fuel reported under the scheme. This data is published quarterly on the gov.uk website. The latest published data covering the period 15 April 2014 to 14 April 2015, shows that bioethanol, blended with petrol, delivered greenhouse gas savings of 62% compared to fossil fuels and biodiesel, blended with diesel, achieved 75% greenhouse gas savings. The figures exclude emissions from indirect land-use change.
Super unleaded petrol, the premium grade, has a separate specification to regular unleaded petrol. This limits the oxygen content and a higher minimum for octane number. Some vehicles could be more fuel efficient when using this petrol if they have been designed to respond to using such a fuel as they will be able to develop more power from the fuel. While diesel may be marketed as premium on the basis of additives to the base fuel, all diesel is supplied to one standard EN590.
The Department does not have any information regarding the comparative fuel efficiency between super and regular unleaded petrol. However, the influence of fuel upon mileage, is much smaller, in general, than is the influence of other factors such as the vehicle itself (for example, its size, weight, power) , the way that the vehicle is driven, and the road conditions (for example motorway or urban driving).
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the amount of British-grown wheat used in bio-fuel production.
Answered by George Eustice
There is no specific published data on the amount of wheat grown in the UK that is used for bioethanol. However it is possible to provide an estimate. Defra's statistics on ‘The Area of Crops Grown For Bioenergy in England and the UK: 2008 – 2012' published in December 2013 include data reported under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) on the volume of bioethanol supplied to the UK road transport market with information on the feedstock and the country of origin of the feedstock. By applying appropriate conversion factors, it is possible to derive an estimate of the equivalent tonnage and crop area of wheat grown and used to produce bioethanol. These figures are outlined in the table below.
UK wheat areas used to produce bioethanol supplied to the UK road transport market 2008/9 - 2012/13 Wheat (RTFO Year: 15 April n-1 to 14 April n) |
Volume of bioethanol (million litres)(b) |
Tonnage of crop implied ('000 tonnes)(c) |
wheat yield (t/ha)(d)(e) |
Area implied (thousand ha) and % of UK total wheat area(e) |
Year 1: 15 April 2008 - 14 April 2009 | 0.0 | 0 | 8.3 | 0 |
Year 2: 15 April 2009 - 14 April 2010 | 0.9 | 3 | 7.9 | 0.3 (0%) |
Year 3: 15 April 2010 - 14 April 2011(a) | 211.9 | 581 | 7.7 | 75.4 (4%) |
Year 4: 15 April 2011 - 14 April 2012 | 17.9 | 49 | 7.7 | 6.3 (0%) |
Year 5: 15 April 2012 - 14 April 2013 (provisional)(f) | 48.2 | 132 | 6.7 | 19.6 (1%) |
(a) This includes an estimated 92 million tonnes of bioethanol produced from wheat used for markets other than for UK Road Transport.
(b) All wheat volumes above were grown on previously cropped land.
(c) Conversion: 365 litres bioethanol = 1 tonne wheat grain (at 15% moisture). Source: Department for Transport commissioned research.
(d) Source: Defra annual Cereal and Oilseed Rape Production Survey (In 2012 the Cereal Production Survey and Oilseed Rape Production Survey were brought together to reduce costs Cereal Production Survey) UK yield at year n-1. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/structure-of-the-agricultural-industry
(e) Source: Defra June Survey of Agriculture. UK area at year n-1. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/structure-of-the-agricultural-industry
(e) Figures for 2012-13 (Year 5) are as of 15 September 2013 and are not final.
The RTFO data exclude UK biofuel production from UK grown wheat which may be subsequently exported, although the 2010/11 figure also includes an estimate of bioethanol produced from wheat and used for other markets or exported. Similarly, data is not available on wheat grown in the UK which is exported for possible biofuel production outside the UK.