WATCHING THE WORLD FRENCH TRY FARM GROWN FUEL ADDITIVES

With David Knott from London France is famous for its endless variety of delightful sauces. Now, it seems, French refiners are out to gain a similar reputation for their gasolines, with sugar beets, cereal, and rape seed products added to commercially sold fuels. Last year the French government exempted biocarburants from standard fuel taxes. This made ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE) an attractive alternative to methyl tertiary butylether (MTBE), commonly added to unleaded fuels to boost

July 26, 1993

3 min read

France is famous for its endless variety of delightful sauces.

Now, it seems, French refiners are out to gain a similar reputation for their gasolines, with sugar beets, cereal, and rape seed products added to commercially sold fuels.

Last year the French government exempted biocarburants from standard fuel taxes. This made ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE) an attractive alternative to methyl tertiary butylether (MTBE), commonly added to unleaded fuels to boost octane.

Ste. Nationale Elf Aquitaine has been producing ETBE from ethanol, derived from sugar beets or cereals, and isobutane at its Feyzin refinery nears Lyons. This 75,000 metric ton/year plant can produce enough ETBE to boost all Elf unleaded gasoline volumes by 5%.

ENCOURAGED

Elf at first sold gasoline with ETBE only around Lyons without calling attention to the additive. Emboldened by encouraging opinion polls, the company is now selling the product in marked pumps in the Seine-et-Marne and Essonne regions.

Elf also bought exclusive distribution rights to the Diester trade name, which relates to a methylester additive for diesel fuel manufactured from rape seed oil. This is being marketed to fleet operators, but Elf plans to push for broader usage.

Total SA has been selling gasoline with ETBE since last year. So far the company has limited itself to selling the fuel in 50 service stations throughout Northeast France without identifying the additive. A survey will be conducted before Total decides whether to sell the product more widely and with more publicity.

FEASIBILITY STUDY

Total announced July 15 it had signed an agreement with northern French beetroot producers and ethanol manufacturers to conduct a feasibility study for joint development of an ETBE plant either at Total's refinery near Le Havre or near Dunkerque.

The group will study a plan to build a 50,000 metric ton/year plant scheduled for start-up in 1995. The study is scheduled for completion in October.

Total also has been selling diesel fuel with an additive derived from rape seed oil from seven depots throughout France.

Ste. des Petroles Shell is in on the action too, announcing it will supply Caen's 350 vehicle public bus fleet with a fuel made of two thirds diesel and one third rape oil methylester.

French producers are anxious to see massive reductions throughout the European Community in taxes on fuels with biocarburant additives. Elf maintains that if French tax exemption disappeared it would revert to manufacturing only MTBE additives using imported methanol. This would inflame the powerful French farmers' lobby, another thing for which France is famed.