Japan: Gas stations start selling biofuels

From yesterday (April 27), 50 gas stations in Tokyo and Kanagawa prefectures, Saitama and Chiba . began testing bio-petrol (biogasoline). This is a form of fuel made from corn, sugarcane and some other agricultural products, which have been used successfully in the US, Brazil and increasingly popular in the world as a form of ecological fuel.

In Tokyo, biogasoline used to be sold to bus trucks running the routes, mainly using bioethanol medium and petrol. Now, new products will be sold to private cars.

Japan has an obligation to reduce atmospheric emissions by 6% by 2012 compared to 1990, considering the use of biogasoline as a step towards achieving the above target. Currently, the ability to produce eco-fuel is 100% very low, not to mention that not all engines can run with " pure " ecological fuel, so people have to prepare them into gasoline with a content of Small: from 3 to 5%. In terms of fuel that appears at Japanese gas stations, they are a mixture of gasoline and bioethanol.

A biofuel tanker leaves the Nippon Oil Corp refinery to bring gasoline to the stations.(Photo: Kyodo)

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