Biofuels

The Lazy Shag backpackers in Kaikoura has had a multi-oil clean burn boiler installed to supply the hostel's hot water, slashing the business's electricity bill.

The boiler is fired with used cooking oil purchased at low cost from other local businesses. The reduction of the backpacker's carbon footprint sits well with Kaikoura's, and the country's clean green image.

Ethanol has many favourable attributes when considering it for use in general everyday motoring as well as high performance race applications. Its status as a sustainable fuel when sourced from waste or by-product biomass, combined with good combustion, thermal and anti-knock properties, along with a tendency to reduce CO2 emissions, has prompted this investigation into the advantages of petrol-ethanol blends compared to conventional motorsport fuels for use in race vehicles..

Fundamentally biofuels must deliver significant greenhouse gas reductions compared to the fossil based fuels that they are being substituted for, as it is on this belief that consumer demand for biofuels is soaring worldwide. Sugarcane based bioethanol remains one of the best performing commercially available biofuels. Even with transport of bioethanol from Brazil to New Zealand taken into consideration, the energy output of Brazilian ethanol is still better than fossil based petrol.

The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) engaged Sinclair Knight Merz Limited
(SKM) to review a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of rapeseed biodiesel undertaken by CRL Energy
Limited (CRL) for Solid Energy New Zealand Limited.