14 DAY TRIAL // The race to find new alternative fuel sources is fully underway and some countries are seriously involved in the issue of cleaning up the air we breathe. Ethanol is a good example of such an application, diesel engines can very well run on used cooking oil and even newer sources are being taken into account, like corn or manure from farm animals.
Sweden is probably the most advanced country in this area, more than one-quarter of all the energy consumed in this country in 2004 had come from alternative renewable fuel sources and that represents more than four times as much as the European Union average of six percent.
Trying to keep its promise, of becoming the world's first oil-free country by 2020, the Swedish government took radical actions. They decided to convert all the smuggled alcohol that was confiscated last year into biofuel.
Almost 200,000 gallons (more than 700,000 liters) of alcohol was confiscated in 2006, after being illegally brought into the country. Until now, custom officials used to pour all this alcohol down the drain, but now they use beer, wine and spirits to power up thousands of cars, city buses and taxis, the local garbage trucks and even a train.
"This alcohol, which used to go to waste, is now turned into something that's positive for the environment," said Ingrid Jarlebrink of Tullverket, the Swedish Customs agency based in Malm?, Sweden.
The country has some of the prices of alcohol in Europe, many of its citizens traveling to of the neighbors, like Denmark, Germany and the Baltic countries to buy stocks of cheap beer, wine and spirits. So, the smugglers are introducing vast amounts of alcohol into the country, which is sold much cheaper than the official one.
Confiscated alcohol is not the only source of biofuel used in Sweden. The country also converts animal carcasses from slaughterhouses and even human feces into biogas, through a process of heating and anaerobic decomposition.