Branson calls for 70 percent of UK, Indian vehicles to convert to ethanol

January 22, 2008

In India, Sir Richard Branson said that India and Britain should run 70 percent of vehicles on sugar-based ethanol. Branson spoke at an India-Britain CEO roundtable on climate change. He said that sugar prices were low, the technology was mature, and the emissions benefits were established and accepted. Other participants warned of the effect on food prices of large-scale diversion of croplands to biofuel production, and noted that the EU is moving only cautiously towards adoption of a biofuels policy.

Sir Richard Branson has been a high-flyer in many sectors, expanding from the music publishing business in the 1960s to become perhaps the most widely-known entrepreneur of his times. His interest in biofuels stems from a long-standing interest in humanitarian causes, and also a strong of investments in the transportation sector that have increasingly made him a major consumer of fossil fuels.

Branson has invested widely in biofuels and has put his Virgin Atlantic group at the forefront of the jet biofuels movement, committing one of his 747s (empty except for crew) for a biofuels test flight from London to Amsterdam in February.

His investment partner of choice is Vinod Khosla, another finanlist for Biofuels Personality of the Year. Their joint investments include Cilion, a California-based ethanol producer. In 2007, Cilion closed on a $105 million first round of debt financing for the construction of two new ethanol plants in California. Cilion is helmed by Mark Noetzel, formerly a top exec with BP. Cilion has a third plant already under construction in Keyes, CA that will produce 55 million gallons per year, and is an investor in the proposed Lancaster Biofuels plant in Conoy Township, PA.

A more exotic investment is Gevo, which is developing new processes to make butanol commercially viable. Butanol has long been considered an attractive biofuel because it has a similar energy density (e.g. mileage) to gasoline and does not require modifications to vehicles or infrastructure such as pipelines. The negative for butanol is that the production process dates to World War One and is not cost-competitive.

Late last year, Branson’s Virgin Voyager train service trialed a B20-based service across England, Scotland and Wales. “It’s fantastic that we are leading the rest of Europe in developing this fuel,” said Branson at the time of the launch. If test results are successful, Virgin expects to convert their entire Voyager fleet to biodiesel and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 14 percent.

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Written by Jim Lane · Filed Under International, Policy