Beer-based Automotive Fuel Debuts In New Zealand

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We've heard of drunken driving, but not when it is the car itself doing the drinking. Drivers in Auckland, New Zealand were able to fill up their tanks with a biofuel called Brewtroleum, a fuel distilled from the leftovers from the beer-making process.

Making Brewtroleum is similar to creating other biofuels. Brewery DB Exports sends their waste to a lab where the ethanol is isolated from the spent yeast and grain using distillation. The ethanol is then mixed with fuel to create the biofuel E10. Gull Petroleum gas stations distributed the gas to customers and included $50 worth of free fuel to the brave first adopters.

The brewery claims the beer-based fuel emits eight percent less carbon than gasoline. Folks who want to try out the booze-based fuel need to hurry however. The company predicts that current supplies will last only a month and a half. To avoid a biofuel shortage, New Zealanders will need to drink more beer after they drive.

The beer fuel could be the answer to ethanol's prayers, as the alternative fuel is losing favor in the U.S. Both Oregon and Hawaii are considering bills to lift fuel additive requirements. Senators from California and Pennsylvania are trying to limit adding the corn-based ethanol in hopes that a strict cap will encourage research into biodiesel and cellulosic biofuels.  

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