And they’re off! BioMotion Tour takes on the EU

If you put a cleantech twist on the reality television show Amazing Race it would look something like the BioMotion Tour, which kicked off earlier this week in Paris running until Nov. 12 through seven countries and 35 cities in 31 days.

But instead of traveling by airplanes, taxis, rental cars, boats and on foot, the BioMotion Tour is, as the name implies, all about a fleet of cars zooming from one city to the next powered by different kinds of biofuels. The cars run on well-established fuels such as vegetable oil, biodiesel and ethanol, and also next-generation fuels including biogas (see Sainsbury's expands biogas-vehicle trial).

One of the tour participants, the Nissan 350Z, for example, runs on flexifuel (known as flex-fuel in the United States), which describes a vehicle that can burn gasoline, E-85 or a combination of the two (see Bosch gets DOE funding for flex-fuel vehicle and Alkol touts ethanol engine conversion in under an hour).

The convoy, stopping at well-known landmarks along the way, runs through Belgium, the Netherlands, Hungary, Romania and lastly to the Agritechnica exhibition in Hanover, Germany, for the finale.

More than 50 events highlighting sustainable mobility and biofuels are expected to be tied into the adventure, which is intended to bring attention to the European Union’s desire to see further development of the biofuels market and awareness and acceptance around its use. The tour also features vehicle manufacturers and dealers in participating countries.

The project was founded by the European Commission’s Energy unit Intelligent Energy – Europe, which boosts actions expected to help achieve the EU’s target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, as well as fostering energy efficiency and the use of renewable resources (see U.K. unveils clean energy plan).

The tour’s Web site is tracking the current location of the vehicles, how many days they have been on the road, the distance traveled, and carbon dioxide saved from using biofuel instead of regular gas. Many of the eco-friendly vehicles also have global positioning systems (GPS), so the route can be followed online.