The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB)
is an international initiative coordinated by the Energy Center at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne that brings together farmers, companies, non-governmental organisations, experts, governments, and inter-governmental agencies concerned with ensuring the sustainability of biofuels production and processing (read more on the RSB on page 21 or on their website at: www.rsb.org).
Virgin Racing
Virgin’s entry into Formula 1 naturally raises some important environmental challenges. Our approach has been to have a positive influence on the sport and encourage the use of certified, sustainable biofuels, both by increasing their use within the sport and by using it as a test bed for mainstream industry. Virgin Racing is pleased that during the past 12 months the sport has made a significant commitment to moving issues such as biofuels and best practice further up the Formula 1 agenda.
Virgin Racing has formed a partnership with Carbon Green Inc.9
, which is Formula 1’s first ever green technology sponsorship deal. Carbon Green takes discarded tyres, which are an environmental hazard, and breaks them down into 100% reusable products with much lower greenhouse gas emissions .
At the moment the technical regulations in Formula 1 call for a minimum of 5.75% bio-components in the fuel mix. Virgin Racing hopes to see this amount increase substantially over the next few years and indeed wishes to be part of the process of driving biofuel development forward. Sustainability issues surrounding the production of biofuels have not yet been resolved and Virgin Racing believes the only way to ensure that negative environmental and social impacts are avoided is through third party certification. Virgin Racing therefore supports the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels and pledges to supply its biofuel from RSB compliant sources as soon as possible .
The Virgin Group has already invested in a biofuel company called Gevo via the Virgin Green Fund and one of its first challenges will be to design a biofuel that meets Formula 1 regulations while still performing as well as current fuels .
Gevo is developing new generation bio- based fuels and related
products. www.gevo.com
You can read more about the Virgin Green Fund
on page 49.
THE CARBON GREEN PROCESS:
1. Uses pyrolysis
10
to reduce the tyres to: carbonaceous char, steel, and volatiles.
2. Converts the volatiles first to synthesis gas and then burns that gas to produce electricity for resale.
3. Upgrades the char to produce CBp, a high-value commercial substitute for carbon black, whose properties have been proven to satisfy the demands of the industry producing rubber products; and
4. Offers clean operations that cause no detrimental environmental impact.
(www.cbpcarbon.com)
9. Carbon Green Inc. (www.cbpcarbon.com) 10. Heating in the absence of oxygen
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