Renewable transport fuel use in Sweden

A Taxi Stockholm cab (source: TripAdvisor)

The Taxi Stockholm company is striving to be Sweden’s most environmentally taxi company. Out of their 1600 cars 95% are green vehicles, and majority of them run on biofuel. In fact, around 20% of total fuel use in Sweden comes from renewable biofuels.

The motor fuels developed by the company Swedish Biofuels AB are produced from grain crops or cellulosic raw material, including wood, and are completely identical to petroleum derived motor fuels. These motor fuels are suitable for operation in conventional, standard engines, including jet engines.

Using biofuels made from crops could be detrimental to the environment but Sweden pledges to used crops grown by sustainable methods. A scientific report argued that Swedish biofuels do have major benefits for the environment. “The results show that they produce between 65 and 140 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than petrol and diesel, even when direct and indirect land use changes are taken into account."

Sweden’s goals are to reduce GHG emissions compared with 1990 by 40 per cent by the year 2020 and to have a vehicle fleet completely rid of fossil fuels by 2030. These are stepping stones to the major goal of a society with no net GHG emissions by the year 2050.

To reduce our use of fossil fuels, there can be a range of different approaches. As for transport, we will gradually improve vehicles powered by renewable electricity, biofuels, hydrogen and other developing technologies.