By Lucas Reijnders

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Filed under : Scitizen >> Technology >> Future Energies >> French folly

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French folly

3 Feb, 2009 02:21 pm

Strange ways to use science were not and are not the prerogative of the Bush government. A case in point is France, once justly famous for its contribution to the Enlightenment. In the latest legally binding EU biofuel directive negotiated by the French presidency, it is assumed that ethanol from sugarbeet does at least 52% better than fossil fuel based gasoline, miraculously up from 35% in the draft directive.

The first time that I was forcibly struck by the curious way in which a French government can handle science was in 1986. Then the European Union was subject to the fallout due to a disaster at the Czernobyl nuclear plant. EU countries and Switzerland rapidly made available data indicating the geographical distribution of this fall out, and from these data a map was derived. The map however did show a blank for France. Whereas data from Germany and Switzerland demonstrated that there was fall out close to the Franco-German and -Swiss border, the French government maintained that there had been no fall out on French soil. Measurements on French agricultural produce did later show that this was incorrect. And to knowledgeable scientists, the French government looked very foolish indeed.

I felt at the time that the French government would have learned from this, and would not repeat such blatant manipulation. However a recent intervention of the French government shows that the lesson of Czernobyl has worn off. This intervention concerns the biofuel ethanol made from sugarbeet. In the EU fuel ethanol from sugarbeet is mostly derived from French sugarbeet. Studies have shown that the greenhouse gas balance of this biofuel is worse than that of fossil fuel-based gasoline, which is replaced by sugarbeet derived ethanol (1,2). Life cycle inputs of fossil fuels, the emission of N₂O and changes in biogenic carbon stocks contribute to the relatively poor performance of European sugarbeet-derived ethanol. However in the latest legally binding EU biofuel directive negotiated by the French presidency, it is assumed that ethanol from sugarbeet does at least 52% better than fossil fuel based gasoline, miraculously up from 35% in the draft directive. This shows the negotiating skills of the French government and is a boon to sugarbeet growers in France, but to knowledgeable scientists the French government must look very foolish again.

(1) Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel demand and solar energy conversion efficiency in European bioethanol production for automotive purposes. Journal of Cleaner production 15 (2007) 1806-1812

(2) Transport biofuels – a life cycle assessment approach. CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science and Natural Resources 3 (2008) 071

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