Prince Charles Runs His Aston Martin on White Wine
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07. 1.08
I never heard that English white wine was good for much, but it is good enough for Prince Charles to show off his environmental credentials again- he powers his 38-year-old Aston Martin with it. The fuel comes from Greenfuels in Gloucestershire, and is made from cheese and surplus white wine from a vineyard in Wiltshire. The car was a 21st birthday gift from mum. ::First Post
UPDATE: The Guardian explains how. "When Aston Martin heard that Prince Charles wanted to run his DB5 run-around on bioethanol, they contacted Gloucester-based Green Fuels for help. The company bought in 8,000 litres of surplus white wine from a nearby vineyard - for a mere 1p a litre - and ran it through their distillery. Understandably, the vineyard's owner is keeping his head down, for fear of mobs in search of free plonk.
By boiling off the wine's 11% alcohol, condensing it and removing any remaining water, Green Fuels ended up with hundreds of litres of 99.8% pure ethanol, which they topped up with alcohol extracted from fermented whey collected from local cheesemakers. A tune of the Aston's carburettors to allow more fuel into the engine, and it was ready to go, on a mix of 85% ethanol and 15% petrol." ::The Guardian
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Given that wine is one of the few liquids more expensive than petrol these days I'm not sure this is of much benefit to the rest of us!
:)
Unless the cheese had gone bad and was going to be thrown away, and the wine was utterly undrinkable, this doesn't seem very green at all to me. If corn ethanol is an inefficient fuel source, imagine the efficiency of feeding cows to make milk to make cheese to make fuel. Sorry, I'm not convinced.
now thats classy! wine and cheese, an Austin martin and a Prince! what a date!
A car that runs on cheese and wine? Does he store crackers in his glove box?
Pardon me, but do you have any Gray Poupon?