Clari­ant, Hal­ter­mann and Mer­cedes-Benz fleet test results

• sun­li­quid® 20: a sus­tain­able, advanced bio­fuel with ideal com­bus­tion prop­er­ties and efficiency
• Prac­tice test con­firms: no neg­at­ive impact on range or driv­ing comfort
• Plus for the envir­on­ment: improves particle count emis­sions and guar­an­tees sig­ni­fic­ant reduc­tions in CO₂ emissions

Clari­ant (IBB net­work mem­ber), Hal­ter­mann and Mer­cedes-Benz have tested a fuel of the future in a fleet test since Janu­ary: Ini­tial res­ults prove the high qual­ity and excel­lent prop­er­ties of sun­li­quid® 20 fuel (con­tains 20% eth­an­ol com­ing from straw). With its first-class com­bus­tion prop­er­ties, sun­li­quid® 20 improves engine effi­ciency so that its 4% less­er energy con­tent, as com­pared to E10, is more than com­pensated. For drivers, this means: with sun­li­quid® 20, the sus­tain­ab­il­ity of the fuel (reduced CO₂ emis­sions) is increased sig­ni­fic­antly whilst con­sump­tion remains the same. In addi­tion to first-class per­form­ance, the 50% improve­ment in particle count emis­sions of sun­li­quid® 20 in con­trast to the EU ref­er­ence fuel EU5 is not­able. Fur­ther­more, the cel­lu­losic eth­an­ol in sun­li­quid® 20 demon­strates espe­cially high green­house gas emis­sion sav­ings of up to 95% across the entire value chain (well-to-wheel per­spect­ive) without com­pet­ing with food pro­duc­tion or agri­cul­tur­al acre­age. Con­sumers could fill now their tanks with an eco-friendly fuel, one which can be intro­duced without mak­ing any adjust­ments to the gas sta­tion infra­struc­ture in Europe and without com­prom­ising fuel range and driv­ing com­fort. ​“Cel­lu­losic eth­an­ol from agri­cul­tur­al residues can play a key role in cre­at­ing more sus­tain­able mobil­ity in Ger­many, Europe and world­wide. Here we have the latest gen­er­a­tion of truly advanced bio­fuel, the high per­form­ance of which was con­firmed in the fleet test on series vehicles,” says Pro­fess­or Andre Kolter­mann, Head of Group Bio­tech­no­logy at Clari­ant. ​“Second gen­er­a­tion bio­fuels com­ing from agri­cul­tur­al residues are now tech­no­lo­gic­ally ready and avail­able for pro­duc­tion and applic­a­tion. A change in ener­gies used for trans­port must also be suc­cess­ful now; for this to hap­pen, we urgently need stable frame­work con­di­tions such as the man­dat­ory blend­ing rate for advanced bio­fuels being dis­cussed at EU level.” ​“Our main task is to shape solu­tions to cre­ate sus­tain­able mobil­ity for the future. Gas­ol­ine with 20% eth­an­ol can already be used eas­ily in our latest Mer­cedes-Benz Blue­DIR­ECT gas­ol­ine engines. The pri­or exper­i­ences from the pilot pro­ject are optim­ist­ic, as are green­house gas emis­sion sav­ings regard­ing effi­ciency. Hence cel­lu­lose eth­an­ol can make a sig­ni­fic­ant con­tri­bu­tion to cli­mate pro­tec­tion, so mak­ing it for us a build­ing block of sus­tain­able mobil­ity,” explains Peter Lueck­ert, Dir­ect­or for Engine, Power­train, and Fuel Injec­tion at Daimler AG. ​“Our joint pro­ject is evid­ence that Ger­many is a trend­set­ter in the research and devel­op­ment of sus­tain­able spe­cial fuels. The use of out­stand­ing bio­fuels is extremely import­ant for sus­tain­able, effi­cient and afford­able mobil­ity in the future. As a spe­cial­ties com­pany and research part­ner of the industry, we are even more delighted to be able to pro­duce a fuel that can be used so broadly,” emphas­izes Dr. Uwe Nick­el, CEO of H·C·S Group (Hal­ter­man Car­less Solu­tions). sun­li­quid® 20 is an E20 fuel with 20% cel­lu­losic eth­an­ol. Wheat straw or oth­er non-edible agri­cul­tur­al residues are con­ver­ted into cel­lu­losic eth­an­ol using Clariant’s sun­li­quid® pro­cess. The pro­duc­tion of cel­lu­losic eth­an­ol is vir­tu­ally CO₂-neut­ral, sav­ing almost 100 % of CO₂ emis­sions com­pared to gas­ol­ine. Hal­ter­mann then mixes the cel­lu­losic eth­an­ol with con­ven­tion­al fuel com­pon­ents to form the new fuel sun­li­quid® 20. The 20% cel­lu­losic eth­an­ol gives the fuel a high octane num­ber (RON) of over 100, guar­an­tee­ing optim­al effi­ciency. In Janu­ary 2014, Clari­ant, Hal­ter­mann, and Mer­cedes-Benz began the fleet test with Mer­cedes-Benz series vehicles. The test fleet vehicles can be refilled with the new fuel at a spe­cially equipped gas sta­tion on the Mer­cedes-Benz site in Stut­tgart-Unter­türkheim for one year. The cel­lu­losic eth­an­ol comes from Clari­ant’s sun­li­quid® demon­stra­tion plant in Straub­ing, where approx­im­ately 4,500 tons of agri­cul­tur­al residues such as wheat straw or corn stover are con­ver­ted into cel­lu­losic eth­an­ol each year. At the Hal­ter­mann plant in Ham­burg, the bioeth­an­ol is mixed with selec­ted com­pon­ents to cre­ate the innov­at­ive fuel, the spe­cific­a­tions of which reflect poten­tial European E20 fuel qual­ity. Source: Clari­ant AG