GM Holden to build waste-to-ethanol facility

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General Motors Holden Ltd., the firm's Australian branch, announced plans to construct a plant that will turn discarded rubbish into usable fuel. The waste-to-ethanol processing facility will be capable of transforming 1.1 million tons of trash into 52.8 million gallons of ethanol yearly. The facility will be built in the Australian state of Victoria and the ethanol produced within the complex will be used in a range of blended fuels, including E85 (85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline), and sold at local Caltex Australia Ltd. stations under the name of Bio E-Flex.

GM Holden's recently launched flex-fuel-capable VE Series II Commodore lineup of vehicles are the company's first Australian-made cars capable of running on E85. Once the waste-to-ethanol facility is complete, owners of Holden's Series II models will be able to fill up with Bio E-Flex, a fuel that is 85 renewable and claimed to reduce "well to wheel" emissions by as much as 40 percent.

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[Source: Wards Auto – sub. req.]

Category: Ethanol, Manufacturing/Plants, GM, Pacific Region, Holden

Tags: ethanol, ethanol production, gm ethanol, holden ethanol, waste ethanol, waste-to-ethanol

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Ra Conteur

Excellent project. Conversion of municipal waste to energy accomplishes two major goals: reduction of landfill waste, and production of renewable fuels. Congratulations to GM Holden for exercising insight and vision to address our quest for Energy Independence.

December 16 2010 at 12:02 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

AussieEVfan

Didn't know that had a Mr Fusion ready to market yet, thought this wasn't coming until 2015!

I would be interested to know how much energy / efficiency to make this fuel versus energy / efficiency derived from the fuel.

I think Holden are making this move because there view is that mainstream Aussies are not yet ready to make a move to electrification - they are bringing the Volt here (in 2012) but there appears no plans to make a EV here.

There was a Holden Commodore hybrid test mule built back about 3 years ago but that was about it that I know of any move to bring a locally produced EV to market.

http://www.csiro.au/solutions/ECOmmodore.html

Rival Toyota is selling a hybrid Camry but its not a plug in.

This is of course is a big shame that Australia keeps dragging its feet with a move to electrification of its cars.

December 15 2010 at 4:09 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Carney

I think ethanol should be made from its usual sources - sugary and starchy material.

I'm not opposed to other biomass and waste being made into alcohol fuel, but into methanol (with an "M") not ethanol. It's cheaper and easier to make methanol from that stuff.

Making a car ethanol compatible costs an automaker about $100 USD per new car at the factory. Adding compatibility with methanol and all other alcohol fuels (propanol, butanol, etc) only adds another $30 to the cost.

December 15 2010 at 12:28 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

gorr

It's machines like that that i need but smaller and sold at ebay or canadian tires or walmart, to do the same stuff, especially ethanol and cng because these stuffs are simpler chimically to do, just have to think about how they do beer or wine or when garbages smell bad then it's alcool and methane. I throw out 2 garbages can a week and all the neibors too?? why not keeping them and transform them at home and burn it in a lincoln continental v8 instead. Some day it will be politically correct to go to the convenience store 2 streets away with the car because we know that we depollute instead of polluting.

December 15 2010 at 11:38 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

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