Bentley installs biofuel tank at Crew factory

Vehicles from the Bentley Heritage Collection and press fleet will be able to reduce their carbon impact by an estimated 85% thanks to a new 1,200-litre fuel bowser within the Crewe production site.
Bentley ran its six strong fleet at Goodwood using the fuel and successfully completed all 32 hill-climbs. The 750PS, W12-engined Batur fuelled with the second generation biofuel completed a 55 second run putting it in the top-three production cars of the weekend.
The second-generation biofuel now installed at Crewe conforms to the global EN228 standard for gasoline, meaning that it’s a straightforward replacement for normal pump fuel.
No engine modifications are necessary, even for the oldest surviving Bentley, the 1920 EXP2. Any Bentley ever built will run as powerfully and smoothly on the second generation biofuel as it does on normal pump gasoline, while dramatically reducing its carbon footprint.
Unlike first-generation biofuels, which are made from food crops grown on arable land, second-generation biofuels use waste products, including agriculture and forestry waste and food industry by-products.
During the production process waste biomass is broken down using fermentation, leading to the creation of ethanol.
Dehydration of the ethanol converts it to ethylene, which can then be transformed into gasoline through the process of oligomerisation – chaining short hydrocarbon molecules together to produce longer, more energy-dense ones.
The fuel produced is 100% renewable and delivers an estimated 85% reduction in CO2 impact compared with conventional gasoline. By using waste materials that would otherwise be disposed of, second-generation biofuel avoids the ‘food versus fuel’ dilemma associated with first-generation biofuels.