Australia's first E85 service station

Saab has a range of E85-compatible models for Australian consumers, but up until now there's been no filling station capable of supplying the green fuel, making the whole exercise futile.

Now however, United Petroleum has announced the first E85-capable station in Australia. The existing station, located in the Brisbane suburb of Virginia, is currently having E85 pumps installed.

E85, as the name suggests, is a blend of ethanol (85 per cent) and petrol (15 per cent).

It's all the current rage in the US, where the market has responded by producing numerous cars that will run on the green fuel.

Saab has estimated that its BioPower range of vehicles (more here) has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by 70 per cent, when measuring the total carbon dioxide production that goes with harvesting the corn or other crops for ethanol production, versus the cost of extracting and refining fossil fuels to produce petrol.

Another advantage to E85 is the issue of pricing. The cost to the consumer purchasing E85 is expected to be less volatile than that of the full strength brew.

One argument raised in opposition to E85 is that the ethanol is usually derived from corn crops, cutting into food production from arable land, although different research facilities around the world are looking at alternative means of producing ethanol without detriment to food production.

Saab claims that the 2.0-litre 9-3 BioPower actually produces more power and torque than the same car with an engine tuned to run on petrol alone. The figures quoted are 147kW of power and 300Nm of torque for the BioPower model, 129kW and 265Nm for the petrol-only model.

United Petroleum's E85 facility is expected to commence the supply of the blended fuel from around April, with similar facilities in other Australian capitals to follow.

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