This is the Aston Martin of Carlos III of England that works with cheese and wine

“My Aston Martin, which is already 51 years old, runs on the surplus of English white wine and the whey of cheese”, said the King of England, Charles III, at the time in an interview with the BBC. The British king acquired this car in November 1970; it is one of the most famous convertibles in the world , with a Seychelles blue finish and late 1970s license plate. It is the same vehicle in which his eldest son, Prince William, left Buckingham Palace with his then-new wife, Kate Middleton, after their wedding in 2011.

The vehicle was not like that when he received it, but the monarch had it modified the operation of your car so that instead of using fossil fuelsit will work with 85% ethanol and 15% fuel derived from petroleum. The reason for it was reduce carbon footprint and while some praise the gesture, many others, particularly activists, believe that if this were replicated globally the environmental effects could be very negative, according to ‘The Guardian’.

The alternative, which seems very sustainable, may not be so, or at least for now. As he explains greg archerdirector of the British branch of the European Federation for Transport and the Environment, to ‘The Guardian’, “the picturesque solution of the [entonces] Prince Charles to avoid the carbon footprint with his car, using a high amount of bioethanol, not to be confused with a serious solution to avoid the residual impact of all vehicles”.

“On a large scale, biofuels can do much more harm than good, since on the other hand deforestation is driven and the uses of the land, which could accelerate the climate crisis”, he points out. Therefore, its worldwide application could bring secondary effects that affect the planet depending on the raw material used, specifically if it is produced expressly for it or if it has been reused as urban waste.

The fuel used to run this car is a variable of bioethanol E85 which is achieved using waste wine white not suitable for consumption and with the whey from the cheeses. The monarch had this fuel developed in 2018 with the objective of create a biofuel more friendly to the planet. This type of bioethanol is produced by a company called Green Fuels, located in Gloucestershire, which has been in charge of making the technical modifications to the engine so that King Charles III’s DB6 would work with the use of these two ingredients: white wine and cheese. The project has also had the collaboration of the company of specialists in Aston Martin RS William.

What is bioethanol?

Bioethanol is a form of alcohol which is achieved through different types of plants rich in cellulose, such as be sugarcanebeets or even corn. Although it is possible to cultivate these products to allocate it to the production of this biofuel, it can also be obtained through the surpluses of forestry or agricultural residualsaccording to the oil company Repsol.

In this specific case and as explained by the Spanish Association of Petroleum Product Operators, this type of bioethanol would be advanced Type, since it comes from agricultural residues, especially from the decomposition of biomass; which makes it one of the most sustainable. Some of the sources used to obtain this type of fuel are wood or plant species such as algaealthough this point is still under investigation.

Today, the countries that are international leaders in ethanol production and consumption are United States and Brazil. In the case of Europe, the one that exports the most is France. Although it may seem novel, the reality of its use has been contemplated since 1826, when an American engineer created the first ethanol combustion engine. It currently has the same uses as other types of energy such as electricalthe motor wave calorific. Regarding its use in transport, most of the cars that use this fuel do so by mixing it in a certain percentage with traditional fuels to reduce the carbon footprint of vehicles.

What are the environmental effects of biofuels?

Bioethanol can have many advantages: it reduces CO2 emissions and does not generate waste when burned, but its large-scale production can have environmental effects. A European Union report on the cultivation of raw materials for the production of biofuels advises that they may there are negative consequences for the environment if a massive production of this type of crops is carried out.

Currently, most Member States consider that the limited cultivation of these raw materials compared to other agricultural activities is so scarce that for this reason there are currently no notable effects. So the solution to this would be found in the advanced bioethanol production and the consumption of biomass generated as urban waste, since it would not be necessary to allocate crops to its production and change the uses of the land or favor deforestation. Instead, it would be necessary to regulate the first generation bioethanol production, which is the one for which crops are expressly derived in their production.