American Le Mans Series Cuts Carbon Footprint by Over One Third

October 05, 2010

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by Joanne Ivancic (Advanced Biofuels USA) According to Robert P. Larsen, Director Emeritus of the Center for Transportation Research at Argonne National Laboratory, the results of the 2010 Petit Le Mans race showed more than a 38% displacement of oil through the use of advanced biofuels. The carbon footprint was also reduced by 38%.

These results were calculated using the actual fuel consumed by every car in the Le Mans Prototype and GT classes over the course of the race using a well-to-wheel total life cycle analysis of the four fuels actually used in the race. All the fuels except the diesel have some biofuel content. The diesel includes gas-to-liquid fuel. The baseline took the fuel consumed as straight diesel or racing gasoline as was used in the ALMS before 2006.

Larsen notes, "Clearly, the use of cellulosic ethanol in the E85R was instrumental in reaching this astonishing achievement as was the use of GTL racing diesel fuel. Of note was the racing was faster and better than ever before. This is a completely voluntary program that graphically and dramatically illustrates the advantages of using advanced biofuels in a demanding performance environment." READ MORE and MORE

The teams and drivers using cellulosic E85 raceing fuel are:

P1 (Prototype race cars)

Drayson Racing (Paul Drayson, Jonny Cocker, Emanuele Pirro)
Autocon Motorsports (Bryan willman, Tony Burgess, Chris McMurry)
Intersport Racing (Jon Field, Clint Field)

GT2 (Production-based sports cars)

Corvette Racing #3 (Johnny O’Connell, Olivier Beretta, Antonio Garcia)
Corvette Racing #4 (Oliver Gavin, Jan Magnussen, Emmanuel Collard)
Flying Lizard Motorsports #44 (Darren Law, Seth Neiman
Flying Lizard Motorsports #45 (Joerg Bergmeister, Patrick Long)
Risi Competizione #61 (Giancarlo Fisichella, Toni Vilander, Mika Salo)
Risi Competizione #62 (Jaime Melo, Gianmaria Bruni)
BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team #90 (Dirk Muller, Joey Hand)
BMW Rahal Letterman Rading Team #92 (Bill Auberlen, Tommy Milner)
Extreme Speed Motorsports #01 (Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek, Dominik Farnbacher)
Extreme Speed Motorsports #02 (Ed Brown, Guy Cosmo, Joao Barbosa)
Robertson Racing #04 (Anthony Lazzaro, Rob Bell, David Murry)