A 20 percent blend of cellulosic ethanol was tested in Mercedez Benz fleet vehicles in Germany over the past year and found to provide “excellent combustion characteristics without additional consumption.”

Specialty chemicals company Clariant joined with Mercedes-Benz and Haltermann Carless to perform the fleet test using sunliquid® 20, a fuel produced by Haltermann Carless with a cellulosic ethanol content of 20 percent by volume (E20) from Clariant’s sunliquid plant in Straubing, Germany.

According to Clariant, “sunliquid 20 exhibited very good combustion properties with a high degree of efficiency and identical consumption compared to today’s standard E10 fuel. Due to the slightly lower energy density of E20 compared to E10, slightly higher fuel consumption was expected under the same operating conditions. The tests performed under laboratory conditions demonstrated variability in the consumption analysis in which additional consumption between 0 and 3 percent was observed.”

Clariant’s sunliquid precommercial plant in Straubing converts about 4,500 tons of agricultural residue such as cereal straw or corn stover into cellulosic ethanol each year.