The energy economy of industrialised societies has been built on various systems, which are large and complex. The path dependence on the field is strong, while the duration of large investments can be counted in decades. In the 20th century, utilised energy systems for motorised vehicles faced severe problems with intervals of ten to twenty years. However, all the time there were alternatives for chosen energy sources from the very beginning, and these alternatives were used, when an energy crisis hit. Frequently, biofuels have been serious options for fossil fuels, but they were not chosen for the basis of energy systems of transportation either in Europe or North America. The central question of this session will be:  Why have biofuels, such as ethanol – despite the many “oil-crises” in the past (e.g. WW1, WW2, the oil crisis of the 1970s, the establishment of the increased green house effect in the 1980s) – never been able permanently to replace oil as the dominant fuel of motor vehicles?

In his paper Bill Kovarik examines some trailblazing automotive engineers of the interwar period, who searched for alternative fuels to gasoline, because crude oil reserves were anticipated to diminish in the 1920s. Ethanol was found as a high quality fuel enhancing engine efficiency. In addition, ethanol proved to be an environmental-friendly alternative for existing harmful anti-knock additives. Consequently in the early 1920s, expectations for a system switch were high.

In 1909 Scandinavian engineers invented how to make ethanol from the waste resulting from the production of sulphite pulp. This “sulphite spirit” served as a substitute for gasoline and lamp oil during World War I and again during the Second World War. Nevertheless, in Sweden this waste based ethanol was replaced completely by liquid fossil fuels in the late 1950s. The story did not, however, end there.  Ethanol made a comeback in the 1970s for a short while and again in the 1990s, and now Sweden is again regarding it as a prospect fuel. Bo Sundin provides in his paper a long term analysis on the Swedish public debate related to ethanol as an alternative fuel for motor vehicles.

Generated biogas was considered another alternative for fossil fuels in the early 20th century. Timo Myllyntaus studies a massive transition to the use of “wood gas,” carbon monoxide, as a fuel of automobiles in Finland during World War II. Technological problems were solved, the reserves of chopped wood and charcoal were abundant, and vehicles continued to move. However, when the peacetime returned, Finland switched back to use gasoline and diesel oil as fuels of automobiles.

A common argument in these papers is that technological issues, from the end-use perspective, were settled in the examined cases. Consequently, the question on the choice of the energy system can be seen as economic and political rather than technical.

Presenters:

Bill Kovarik, Radford University:  Special Motives: Automotive Inventors and Alternative Fuels in the 1920s

Bo Sundin, Umeå University:  From Waste to Opportunity: Ethanol in Sweden during the First Half of the 20th Century

Timo Myllyntaus, Turku University:  Switching to a Biofuel in the Pinch: Wood Gas in Finnish Automobile Traffic during World War II

Organiser:          Timo Myllyntaus, Turku University, Finland
Commentator:    John Kenly Smith, Jr., Lehigh University