Research and reports

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.

EECA commissioned research into consumer attitudes towards biofuels, so that we can understand what people know about them, and if there are any preceived issues around the use of biofuels.

The research was conducted in 2007.

The research shows:

How much do people know about biofuels?
Almost everyone has heard of biofuels, but most know only a little about them.

This report documents findings of research on two in-service buses fuelled with tallow
methyl ester (TME) biodiesel blends of 20% (B20) and 40% (B40) TME in 50ppm
sulphur automotive diesel fuel (ADF) referred to as the 50ppm fuel. The same batch of
50ppm fuel was used as the reference fuel for the experiments. This programme was
conducted as a postgraduate research project and in co-operation with the Auckland
Regional Council (ARC), BP Oil New Zealand Limited, the Energy Efficiency and

The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) together with Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) Policy sought an international review of literature to better understand the causes of rising food prices and their linkage (if any) to biofuels production. This review aims to inform the New Zealand debate on the impact of first generation biofuels on food prices.