Tailor-made biofuels

Amyris was going into partnership with Crystalsev, a Brazilian firm, to
make car fuel out of cane sugar. Not ethanol (though Brazil already has
a thriving market for ethanol-powered cars), but a hydrocarbon that has
the characteristics of diesel fuel. Technically, it is not ordinary
diesel, either: in chemist-speak, it is an isoprenoid rather than a
mixture of alkanes and aromatics. But the driver will not notice the
difference.

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Two dead in Europe fuel protests

A sign of things to come?

Spaniards are stockpiling fuel and food as hauliers blockade major cities in protest at rising diesel prices. Protesting drivers complain that the price of diesel has soared by more
than 20% this year, and are calling for the government to enforce a
minimum price for haulage, to prevent firms being undercut.

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Related Spanish hauliers on fuel strike

Food prices are rocketing all over Europe

Anyone outraged by the cost of a trip to Tesco or Sainsbury's – or the
price of filling their car – should know that they are not alone: the
same bewilderment and anxiety is sweeping the Continent.

Bulgarian bus drivers are going on strike. Italian fishermen will soon
down tools. Lorry drivers have sealed off oil refineries across France.
Even the fishermen of Belgium, hitherto a relatively obscure force in
European politics, are due to mass in Brussels.

...read on...