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Bio-fuel vehicles could hit roads soon in UAE

Mary Beth Stanek, director of environment, energy and safety policy at General Motors (GM), recently had “promising” meetings with Abu Dhabi officials, regarding the latest GM vehicles running on bio-fuels.

In an exclusive interview to Khaleej Times, she explained what GM is putting on the market and why.

“At present, 35 per cent of the global energy needs are met by petroleum products. By 2030 the energy demand will increase by 70 per cent,” said Stanek.

Much of this energy is required by cars, whose number has already reached 800 million today and in 15 years the number is expected to grow to 1.1 billion.

All these cars would not only require more petrol than is believed to be available in the future, but also have one of the largest impacts on climate change through greenhouse gas emissions.

“We have developed a number of products that run on cleaner fuel or energy and the authorities here seem to take a keen interest in them,” said Stanek.

One of these products is E85 ethanol, an alternative fuel that is produced from agricultural crops, by converting fibre into ethanol (alcohol), which is a clean-burning, renewable resource that recycles the carbon dioxide, thus reducing the greenhouse gasses, said Stanek.

For the past several years, car manufacturers have been giving more attention to hybrid electric vehicles, which use two or more distinct power sources for propulsion.

The hybrid is the most environmentally friendly car, as it achieves greater fuel economy and lower emissions than conventional internal combustion engine vehicles, as well as lower noise levels.

This type of vehicle is only efficient for city traffic, though, where there are frequent stops, coasting and idling periods.

“We are planning to produce a 4X4 plug-in hybrid, which uses a Lithium Ion battery, highly efficient electronics and powerful electric motors to achieve significant increases in fuel economy,” said Stanek.

According to her, it is these plug-in hybrids that the UAE officials are mostly interested in. “We signed an agreement with Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority a few months ago to deliver such vehicles by 2012, which will be used as taxis,” said Stanek.

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