Singapore, July 27, 2010: General Motors (GM), the world’s second largest automobile company has invested heavily on developing flex-fuel engines that run on a combination of ethanol and petrol. GM has entered into partnerships with two biofuel developers— Coskata and Mascoma—both based out of the US to produce affordable ethanol from cellulosic materials.

In Asia, GM has several partnerships with private and government agencies based in India, China, Thailand and Australia for developing and marketing flex-fuel vehicles and advising governments on biofuels roadmap. GM is one of the leading producers of E85 flex-fuel vehicles, with 18 different models available in the US in 2009. This is an initiative towards its goal of increasing the production of E85 compatible vehicle to 50 percent of its total vehicle production by 2012.

In an interview with BioSpectrum, Mr David Tulauskas, Director of Public Policy, GM APAC, China, shares his views on GM’s biofuels initiatives in Asia.

Give us an overview of GM’s biofuels activities in Asia?
GM has an energy diversity strategy and we have developed a portfolio of technology to support different energy pathways, most of them in biofuels. We have offered a D5 powered diesel train that can run on a variety of biofuels and diesel blend to India. We also support the use of E10 (10 percent ethanol blend in petrol) to allow India to implement E10 nationwide. In Thailand, we are very active in promoting E85 fuel. We have a partnership with the Petroleum Authority of Thailand and are working with them on several projects on energy diversity. We have worked with them to launch E20 capable petrol. In Australia, General Motors’ Holden division has been leading the industry in advocating the use of E85. In 2007, we launched the China Automotive Technology and Research Center in Beijing in partnership with SAIC and University of Beijing with an aim to develop automotive policy for China.

Could you tell us about GM’s non-food based biofuels activities?
Most of the biofuels are now sourced from food crops that have had a bad effect on agricultural land. Cellulosic ethanol is basically nonfood based ethanol. Anything that has carbon in it such as old tires can be converted into sugar by biological method to be later converted into ethanol. In our assessment, between 2010 and 2012 we will see more and more production of cellulosic ethanol in commercial scale. There are already several pilot plants doing this around the world and we have partnered with two of the best companies in the world. We want to take the food and land used out of the equation.

What are the major biofuel-based activities happening in Asian countries?
Japan and Korea are looking at ways to effectively increase the use of biofuels. Korea has started studying on how it could use its agricultural and municipal waste to create ethanol. There is a lot of algae study going on and most of it is in the US and some of it in Japan, Korea, Thailand and China. We believe that biofuels offer answers to some of the critical global issues. We are totally committed to modifying vehicles to use ethanol. We have committed ourselves that over 50 percent of the vehicles we sell in the US will be flex-fuel vehicles by 2012.