ethanol Stations in ireland in

Biofuels are once again in the public and Irish Government spotlight, especially following the recent announcement that the cost of adding more biofuel blends to petrol and diesel will be "mitigated" for consumers until at least the second half of 2022.

Blending biofuels - fuels made from crops - into regular petrol and diesel can theoretically mitigate their impact on carbon emissions: the carbon released when biofuels are burned is theoretically absorbed by plants as they grow. But will the latest government commitments to greater use of biofuels increase prices at the pump?

These blends include Ethanol E85, which contains 85% ethyl alcohol made from plants and 15% regular unleaded gasoline. Cars had to be specially modified at the time because E85 is a more corrosive fuel than unleaded gasoline, but generally speaking it's a fairly simple matter mechanically.

"Ireland applies a 2% cap on conventional biofuels in line with RED2. This is inexplicable when the EU average is 5% and when there are many untapped highly sustainable conventional biofuels in Europe. While this will not affect the introduction of E10, Ireland will have great difficulty in reducing the amount of cooking oil used from South East Asia as it will not be able to deploy oilseed biodiesel at a sufficient rate to cover the shortfall." Does this open up an opportunity for Irish farmers, who are already feeling challenged by the Climate Action Plan, to diversify and start producing green fuels themselves?

.