Why Use Super E10?

It is vital to reduce the pace and scope of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector. The world of politics acknowledged this in 2021 and adopted a higher greenhouse gas reduction quota than had been envisaged a few years earlier. Deploying suitable non-fossil fuels plays a decisive role in this context. The aim is to ensure as much defossilisation as possible for vehicles on our roads and significantly cut their CO₂ emissions.

When it comes to petrol, certified sustainable bioethanol in Super (E5), Super E10 and Super Plus helps to meet this objective. Over 30.6 million cars with petrol engines are currently registered in Germany. With just a few exceptions, these cars can utilise Super E10.

Since 2006, all types of petrol in Germany have contained bioethanol. Additional wording is therefore added to the designation "Super": "contains up to 5% bioethanol". This also applies to Super Plus. Super E10, introduced in Germany in 2011, contains up to 10 per cent bioethanol. In Germany, almost 99 per cent of cars with petrol engines and, as a general rule, all new cars with petrol engines can run on Super E10 without any restrictions. The European standard for petrol, DIN EN 228, guarantees Super E10 meets the same quality standards in Germany and all other EU Member States, such as for "SP95-E10" in France, for instance. Bioethanol is the only certified sustainable blending component for officially authorised petrol. Germany’s Biofuel Sustainability Ordinance ensures that the feedstocks for bioethanol do not come from areas deemed particularly worthy of protection and that bioethanol significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Official figures show that greenhouse gas savings of almost 90 percent vis-à-vis the statutory comparative value for fossil petrol have been achieved thanks to bioethanol used in petrol in 2022. Savings can be as high as 192 g of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO₂) per litre of Super E10 compared to a fuel without bioethanol in the blend.

Bioethanol is produced in Germany from renewable feedstocks (feed grain and sugar beet) as well as from agricultural and food-industry residues and waste. When feed grain is processed, around one third of the output is bioethanol; two-thirds goes into producing protein-rich animal feed and other products such as yeast, gluten, biogenic carbon dioxide, biofertilizer, and biomethane. Domestic bioethanol creates and secures jobs in Germany; it also reduces use of crude oil, which has a detrimental impact on the climate and environment and would otherwise need to be imported. Bioethanol is not subsidised in Germany; on the contrary, taxation levels are as high as for fossil petrol made from crude oil.