New Zealand becomes first country to fuel cars with beer-based biofuel

New Zealand yesterday became the first country in the world to power cars with commercially available biofuel made from a by-product of beer. "DB Export Brewtroleum" was unveiled at Gull Kingsland in Auckland. It is also available at 60 other North Island Gull service stations.

Following extensive testing and research, DB Export is the first company to make beer-derived biofuel commercially available, and has produced an initial 30,000 liters of ethanol that has been mixed with premium petrol to make to make 300,000 liters of 98 octane biofuel. The ethanol was made from more than 58,000 litres of yeast slurry that would have otherwise been discarded or used by farmers as stock feed.

Brewtroleum is said to emit 8 per cent less carbon than traditional petroleum and deliver the same performance when compared. DB head of domestic beer marketing Sean O'Donnell said the idea to create the biofuel came about six months ago. "Our brewers at DB Export were talking about what we can do with the waste, and one of them said we could make a biofuel," O'Donnell said. "This is a genuinely exciting opportunity.

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"It's a world-first, we're helping Kiwis save the world by doing what they enjoy best – drinking beer. If you were to fuel your car with biofuel over a year it would be over 250 tonnes of carbon emission you would be saving." O'Donnell said he would like to see DB Export Brewtroleum become a long-term offering. "It's a case of testing consumer demand and assessing the feasibility of ongoing production and logistics. We expect the first batch to last approximately six weeks," he said.