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Petrol industry to charge more for E10 debacle

German motorists could end up paying more at the pump for the botched introduction of E10 biofuel, as petroleum firms are reportedly are preparing to pass on the costs to customers.

Published: 26 August 2011 08:59 CEST

Petrol industry to charge more for E10 debacle

Photo: DPA

Uwe Franke, the head of BP Europa, told the Friday edition of the Essen-based Wesdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung daily that gasoline producers faced large penalties if they did not stick to government quotas for E10. The petrol with 10 percent ethanol has been widely shunned by drivers in Germany since its introduction in January.

“The costs for missing the quota will likely cost the industry between €300 and €400 million,” said Franke, adding petrol companies would have little alternative but to charge customers more.

E10 was supposed to be introduced across Germany this year, but petrol station chains like BP’s Aral stopped after many motorists refused to buy the new biofuel. Some were afraid the new gasoline, meant to reduce CO2 emissions, might damage their engines, while others took issue with its minor reduction in fuel efficiency.

In June, only one out of seven German drivers was reaching for E10 at the pump.

DAPD/The Local/mry

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Sweden's SSAB to build €4.5bn green steel plant in Luleå

“The transformation of Luleå is a major step on our journey to fossil-free steel production,” the company’s chief executive, Martin Lindqvist, said in a press release. “We will remove seven percent of Sweden’s carbon dioxide emissions, strengthen our competitiveness and secure jobs with the most cost-effective and sustainable sheet metal production in Europe.”

The new mini-mill, which is expected to start production at the end of 2028 and to hit full capacity in 2029, will include two electric arc furnaces, advanced secondary metallurgy, a direct strip rolling mill to produce SSABs specialty products, and a cold rolling complex to develop premium products for the transport industry.

It will be fed partly from hydrogen reduced iron ore produced at the HYBRIT joint venture in Gälliväre and partly with scrap steel. The company hopes to receive its environemntal permits by the end of 2024.

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The announcement comes just one week after SSAB revealed that it was seeking $500m in funding from the US government to develop a second HYBRIT manufacturing facility, using green hydrogen instead of fossil fuels to produce direct reduced iron and steel.

The company said it also hoped to expand capacity at SSAB’s steel mill in Montpelier, Iowa.

The two new investment announcements strengthen the company’s claim to be the global pioneer in fossil-free steel.

It produced the world’s first sponge iron made with hydrogen instead of coke at its Hybrit pilot plant in Luleå in 2021. Gälliväre was chosen that same year as the site for the world’s first industrial scale plant using the technology.

In 2023, SSAB announced it would transform its steel mill in Oxelösund to fossil-free production.

The company’s Raahe mill in Finland, which currently has new most advanced equipment, will be the last of the company’s big plants to shift away from blast furnaces.

The steel industry currently produces 7 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, and shifting to hydrogen reduced steel and closing blast furnaces will reduce Sweden’s carbon emissions by 10 per cent and Finland’s by 7 per cent.

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