Renewable fuels in road transports in Sweden

Transportation is the branch that is still behind in environmental aspects almost all around the world. In Sweden, there have been several actions since 2000 in order to introduce renewable fuels. All these actions resulted in great reduction of gasoline consumption (from 5.5 in 2004 to 3.9 million m3 in 2012), but increasing in diesel consumption at the same time.

Biodiesel with 404,000 m3 and ethanol with 407,000 m3 were dominant in the biofuels market in the country in 2012, while biogas is rapidly increasing. The biogas consumptions in 2004 and 2012 were 33 and 140 million m3, respectively. There are also electrical cars and hydrogen, but they are negligible. The good news is that the share of renewables in the road-transportation fuels has been increased to 8.1% in 2012. However, we still have a long way to go! A full report on these numbers can be read from Swedish Energy Agency.

Share of renewable fuels in road transport

Resource recovery in nature

In a previous blog, I wrote how human damage the resources, while nature has learned to prolong the life cycle of the materials and many different organisms benefit of using a material.

In a documentary by BBC, the food was stored in a controlled room for two months and the biodegradation was followed. It is an interesting documentary on how the nature take recover its resources by an amazing synergy between different organisms. The food is first degraded by bacteria such as Pseudomonas sp., followed by fungi such as Aspergillus and Penicillum. Flies and their larvae take over and finally beetles such as Dermestes species appear. In this way many different orgamisms live in a great synergy.

We as human should learn from nature on how to live together and also other organisms (bacteria, fungi, plants, animals,...) in a sustainable way.

(BBC Documentary:  After life: The Science of Decay)