‘Extreme Bentley’ Biofuel Supercar Headed to Geneva Motor Show
The headliner for the Bentley stand at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show has neither name nor technical specifications available yet, though the automaker has released two pertinent facts. The car known simply as the “Extreme Bentley” will run on biofuel, and will also be the marque's fastest and most powerful car yet.
Judging from the video above, the formidable mystery car is based off of the Continental GT Speed certainly looks the part with its blacked out grills and a considerable number of vents and intakes. The current Continental GT Speed is the most powerful production Bentley today, with 600 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque, so we’re expecting the new ethanol-powered beast to boast rather impressive figures. Though engine specifics aren't yet confirmed, it's likely that it will use the same W-12 twin-turbocharged engine that the rest of the Continental range utilizes only tweaked for bio-fuel, and a lot more kick.
+ Autoblog: Geneva Preview: Bentley teases biofuel supercar
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chartguy
I assume "biofuel" and "flexfuel" refer to E85 (85% ethanol/15% gasoline).
I will never understand that product. As far as I can tell, it's the result of ADM and other large corn producers lobbying Congress for tax relief and subsidies for their industry.
Burning ethanol in internal combustion engines puts aldehydes in the exhaust. They are irritants to eye, nose and throat, and are also suspected of causing cancer. Gasoline-only engines do not produce aldehydes.
Ethanol delivers less energy per gallon. E85 gets about 72% the miles per gallon. A well-designed engine will get 3-5% more power, perhaps that's how Bentley can make the claim.
E85 tends to be much more expensive, despite the subsidies. Of course a Bentley owner won't notice.
E85 has many fewer retail outlets.
Ethanol is much more corrosive than gasoline, which creates problems from the distribution chain to the car itself.
The upstream environmental effects are massive. Corn requires a lot of fertilizer, and tends to be a leaky crop. That runoff has created a massive dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the Mississippi. Using ethanol for fuel causes much more corn to be planted.
Corn is a food. Diverting the crop for energy production increases food costs. Corn is planted in what used to be soybean fields, driving up those costs, as well. It ripples throughout the range of products, throughout the world.
That's a good start on all the reasons that ethanol is not the answer for our vehicles.
Doos
Some very good & salient points to consider. As far as I can see the only way to go would appear to be algae derived bio- diesel.
One point that doesn't seem to get a mention though. In Africa, corn is a staple that is normally ground into corn meal. Apparently a bi product of this, which incluides the cobs, is used to make ethanol. If that is the case then there is no detrimental effect to food production.
Anonymous
You are correct I am from SA and this to presents a new challange. It will more profitable for farmers to produce corn for bio fuel than it is to feed the people
they are business men in the end
Ian T Blacker
You are incorrect on a couple of points: 1, the corn used to produce ethanol is not human eating grade corn, it is usually the same as corn raised for animal production. This take away food from the table of the starving is a lie used for certain organizations for their own political and philosophical ends. I am not a corm grower or involved in agriculture by the way! 2. There has been and is no increase the amount of land used to grow "ethanol" corn, thereby taking land away from producing human consumption foods, according to my research of land under crop production.
You are correct when you note that ethanol is less efficient than gasolene, and that heavy subsidies are used to enable its use. I would prefer the gasification of coal as fuel instead. It is cheap to produce, a well proven technology and with comparitively limitless reserves. It is also non-poluting. I would be happy to end gasohol subsidies, and reduce my taxes, but then I also want to see an end to peanut subsidies which cost the American tax payer tens of millions of year to make the monopoly peanut farmers even wealthier than they already are.
Zoom Zoom
Sure, coal is cheap to produce...when you blow the tops off of mountains to get it! And having no regard for the resulting change in the terrain which has flooded the property of adjacent landowners. Not to mention that it is just plain wrong to destroy mountains as is being done now. It is strip mining taken to a whole new level. Some day soon, Harlan County will look like the phosphate mines in central Florida.
On the bright side, not so much Black Lung Disease for the miners and Bluegrass musicians have new material for songs!
Anonymous
You are right and you are wrong. The corn "normally" used in the production of ethanol is the same feed corn used for cattle, etc., but that is not the point. The point is that when the price for this "feed" corn rises to the point where it is more profitable for the farmer to raise this type of corn rather than the corn consumed by us humans, acreage usually used for "human" corn is diverted to "feed" corn and then the inflationary cycle is stimulated. "Human" corn prices go up, then "feed" corn prices go up, and so on and so on. The amount of acreage reported for the growing of corn remains vitually constant but the type of corn grown on this acreage changes. If you truly studied the situation as you claim, you would have found that the futures/commodity prices changed considerably in the last 18 months to reflect this exact point. And, until the "lie" of corn to ethanol fuel was recently realized, now "most" educated individuals have come to know that producing ethanol from corn is an energy wasting venture and a money losing investment venture. At best, ethanol from sugar cane is the far more efficient process to consider. Hawaii would be the perfect proving ground. The gasification of coal would be the stepping stone to the sugar cane fuel. As for peanuts, thank your friend Jimmy Carter for that folly.
Anonymous
10/10. Couldn't have said it better.
Cottonfarmer
I understand your concerns. First corn is mainly a grain used for animal feed. The production of ethanol uses only the starch, more than 37% of the corn is left over. It is call DDG's. I feed it to our cattle and it works very well. Nothing is wasted in the production of ethanol. Fertilizer is no longer use like a shotgun. It is applied in low amounts for a long period of time so the plant use nearly all the n2. The problem of run off was addressed many years ago. We produce huge amounts of corn in this country, (billions and billions of bu.)more than half is exported over sea's. The food for fuel thing does not hold water. I know because this is what I do for a living. We have only been producing large scale ethanol in this country for 3 years, yet we have already increased the production per bu. by 22%. Soon with new GMO corn designed for ethanol production this will only go up. Burning ethanol in a car decreases emission by 55%. It is safe fuel. If a truck over turns with 5000 gallons of gas you have a major mess. If a turck over turns with 5000 gallons ethanol you just spilt a really large drink.....
Benjamite
It's natural reaction to give negative comments about something you admittedly don't understand. Although some of your points are semi factual, you are missing the point completley.
E85 was not intended to replace Gasoline, it is a viable cheap alternative to a high octane clean burning fuel. The ultimate use of it would truly be at it's potential when the manufacturers realize what it can do. Here in a machine like this, would prove two of the many advantages to running E85.
I know you are ignorant to the fact that racing gas is over $6.00/ a gallon here in the US, and regular pump gas in Europe is something like 103 octane @ over $8.00/gal. What that allows a engine to do, is run hotter engines, which run cleaner, and also allows manufacturers to build smaller engines that use less gas- need less material to build, and can be just as powerful or more powerful than the american engine counterparts. That is a true savings on not just EPA figures, but materials, labor, production emissions and long term recycleability.
E85 could be one of the best things to happen to american engines, considering the 105 octane and advancement in materials have negated the MILD negative corrosive effects of Ethanol. It really isn't that corrosive as you might think, it like alcohol, it will clean so well it dries/rots out rubber seals. If you switch from rubber to teflon that problem won't plage your car. Trust me, a manufacturer would never use if it had the potential to eat the engine away like you implied. To compare, I have E85 on my car, it's a high performance car like this bentley, A twin turbo Supra. With our horse piss 91 octane, my engine will only make 625 Horsepower to the wheels. With E85, it will make over 933 Horsepower to the wheels! That is a 43% improvement on the power gain, not the 3-5% you improperly advertised.
Concluding, E85 can be hugely benificial power, emmissions, materials, environmentally, and even EPA, if the manufacturers realize what it can do and modify the way they design their engines accordingly...
I'm an engineer by trade, I could design a sports car with a 1.5L four cylinder with a turbo and 4th gen hybrid technology, Using E85, I know I could make a engine that classifies as a SULEV, gets 50+mpg on the highway and still makes over 700 Horsepower.
NO GASOLINE ENGINE CAN DO THAT TODAY!!!
Lime Spreader
Ethanol is mildly corrosive to the fuel handling components have to use the proper materials.
Soy diesel on the other hand will destroy many materials. It will eat copper and brass and aluminum up and dissolve rubber. A soy diesel fuel system will ear up conventional diesel fuel systems if you use over 20% soy bean oil mixed with petroleum diesel. Thus the whole system has to be designed with materials like Teflon and stainless steel.
What is the problem with soy bean oil for fuel? If we squeezed all of the oil out of all of the Soy beans in the USA it would not provide more than 2% of the oil that we need to fuel in this Country.
When Farmers were only getting $1.50 or $2.25 per bushel for corn they would have lost billions of $ if it had not been for Government Subsidies.
Yes there are many people in this world starving, but they have no money... Are American Farmers supposed to spend Billions of dollars to produce food then give to 3 world countries?
Do we really have Global Warming. This Winter in Michigan has averaged 8 degrees F cooler than normal. Last summer in Michigan it was too cool to raise a decent crop, not to mention 45 days with no rain.
I have read that Al Gores real plan is to sell Carbon Credits "A Green tax that would cost Americans Billions of extra dollars." I don't think Obama will be able to follow through on Gores Scams in the present Economy.
Of course we need alliterative energy sources like wind and solar. Of course these sources will cost more than petroleum so the will need to be subsidized just like ethanol and bi diesel was subsidized.
The world Demand for Soy Bean oil has raised the praise of Soy oil to $6.00 per gallon so it is more practical to sell Soy oil for cooking oil than for fuel...
Indy cars run on Ethanol these days so don't tell me it won't make power! I think Indy car engines are 140 Cubic inches.
benjamite
You also incorrect that corn is the only way to produce Ethanol. There are dozens of ways of producing Ethanol. One of the best ways is not corn at all, it is using Algae. For comparison, one acre of corn can produce about 18 gal of Ethanol. The same acre using algae in bio reactors can produce 20,000 gallons of Ethanol per acre! This looks to be the best thing since sliced bread. Do some reasearch before mouthing off like that, you keep progress from happening.
With algae, Ethanol IS the best alternative to Gasoline considering we can produce ALL the energy needs in this entire country using algae without any other country to rely on! to put this in perspective, if we converted 1/10'th of the land New Mexico to bio-reactor algae farms, we can power the entire US energy needs off of that farm.
YOU GOT A BETTER ALTERNATIVE? I DIDN'T THINK SO.
Lime Spreader
Who is chartguy? Does her work for Opec or does her work for Chavez? In the USA Farmers were producing so much corn that it was selling for $1.50 per bushel. Their costs to raise it was $2.50 per bushell or more. this our Goverment the FSA had a huge welfare program to support Farmers. There are more people Employed by the Department of Ag then there are Farmers in the USA!
Right now I can buy gas for under $2.00 per gallon. I think gas today would be over $3.00 per gallon if it was not for the fact that almost all gasoline is 10% ethanol. Diesel fuel is about $1.00 per gallon more than gasoline is now.
I have red that a chevy Flex fuel pickup has 15% more power on E-85 than it does on 87 octane gas. The problem with these flex fuel motors as there there is a huge compromise to get them to run on 87 Octane when E-85 is 105 Octane.
It seems that Chartguy thinks it is better to send 700 Billion dollars to the Middle East every year for oil instead of trying to produce E-85 in the USA. I think a person of his mentality would be a good fit on the Obama Cabinet.
Anyone who wants some more Opinions on energy should read:
From the desk of T. Boone Pickens
Boone here.
I promised to tell you, every month, whether or not we are making progress on cutting down on imported oil.
In January, I reported to you that in December we had imported just under 380 million barrels of oil at a cost of $19.3 billion.
Today I am reporting on the January imports. In January, according to the Department of Energy, we imported 408.7 million barrels which cost the United States about $17 billion, so the transfer of wealth from America to foreign governments is continuing.
That’s an increase of about 7 percent over December’s imports. But, here’s the thing: Congress is in the final stages of putting together a stimulus package to send to the President.
As a member of the New Energy Army I am counting on you to stand with me. I need you to visit www.PickensPlan.com/action today to contact your U.S. Senators about the stimulus package. Let’s make certain they understand how important the Pickens Plan is to America’s future.
-- Boone
eeeehaw
Only in the USA is ethanol made from corn. And, I agree that is not a good thing. Corn not only has inferior yields compared to some other crops, but also competes heavily for food and land use for growing food, and consumes tremdous amounts of nitrogen and petroleum-based fertilizers. Overall life-cycle energy required is slightly negative, meaning that the energy delivered to the consumer at the pump is less than what it took to plant corn and get it to the pump.
In Europe the primary feedstock for ethanol is sugar beets, in Brazil (the highest producing ethanol country) it's sugarcane...both higher yield, lower cost, and much less impactful on food. HOWEVER, you have already some good points above, which essentially boil down to lack of vehicle compatibility. At least biodiesel can be run in completely unmodified diesel engine vehicles today, but ethanol blends in excess of E10 (10% ethanol, 90% gasoline) require different engine designs. That's why consumers immediately experience an avg 30% drop in mileage when filling up with E85, along with the host of other problems.
Detroit has yet to produce an ethanol engine car. And, I would think that it's not likely, given the bad financial shape those manufacturers are in and the need for them to invest in the best ROI areas right now. Most of the "FlexFuel" branding campaign has been meant as a PR ploy to bolster Detroits market appeal.
However, a few car companies in the UK and at least one Japanese car company (Toyota, I think but not certain) have announced intent to design & produce ethanol engines. These engines have much higher compression (think alcohol racing engines), different oiling systems (reduce oil dillution), fuel water extraction (ethanol and other alcohols suck in water from the air, different ignition & computer curves, and more.
Anonymous
"Detroit has yet to produce an ethanol engine car. "
Preposterous. There's tens of thousands of flex-fuel Tauruses, F-150s, Tahoes, Suburbans, Silverados, Stratuses, Durangos, Avengers, 300s, and the like on the road RIGHT NOW. Not to mention their South American subsidiaries.
Bob Harper
The reason ethanol is corn-based in the US is that we don't grow much sugar cane in the US, so the Corn Lobby is much more powerful than the Sugar Cane Lobby. In fact, domestic corn-based ethanol is subsidized to the tune of around 50 cents/gallon, while Brazilian (say) sugar cane-based ethanol is subjected to a tariff of, I think, 54 cents/gallon. That tells us all we need to know about the matter.
cottonfarmer
Bob you are right that we don't grow much sugar cane in the US. Only the very most southern states can grow cane. Corn can be grown in nearly ever part of the US. If you don't think the Brazilian cane farmers and system is not subsidized please thake time to look at the WTO world facts of South Amercians Countries. Every bit of corn base ethanol is made right here in the old USA, yes it not perfect yet but give it a little time to get up and running. WE CAN GROW the fuel we need with out hurting the food supply of the US. Corn is CHEAP, the price is with in 10% of what it was in the 60's. Only through massive changes in Ag have we been able to keep going.
Paulo
Hi cottonfarmer, would you please provide a link to the WTO site where they say that Brazilain sugarcane is subsidized? I am a cane grower myself and can assure you that we do not get a penny of subsidies from the Government.
SteveB.
Doesn't Biofuel refer to the old cooking oil fuel?
Anonymous
You are all idiots. I wonder what planet you all come from? If you do not have a clue about this subject,do not comment.
Dekecds
First: Why can't any of you self proclaimed, super educated, engineering farmers spell, or type for that matter?
Second: This is a BENTLEY!!!
Third: Were any of you relying on Bentley to bring you the next big fuel saving car?
Last: Most Powerful Bentley to Date!!! That is the subject. The side note is that it is flex fuel.
Anonymous
Gee, no, it's not flex-fuel, it's biofuel - what they don't explain to you is that the seat cushions are not padded in the normal sense of upholstery, but are actually comprised of inflatable bladders where the gaseous products of the trunk mounted methane digester are stored - point being that you only have to back it up to your chicken house or barn and shovel in the byproducts to get on down the road. Now, this, might finally be the reasonable replacement for my Phaeton, assuming that is that by the end of the year I'm not either living in my Phaeton or in a refrigerator box under a highway bridge.
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