New Zealand’s Toll Rail to test B5; will expand to entire 165-train fleet

In New Zealand, Toll Rail, the major rail transport provider, will test B5 on commercial service between Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga. If successful, the program would be extended to all 165 of the company’s trains.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Helen Clark has committed the government to use B10 blends or electric power for 80 percent of its fleet by 2015, and the country has a 3.4 percent biofuel mandate target for 2012.In August, a 10 percent ethanol blend went on sale in New Zealand, prompting strong public support from the Green Party while the Director of New Zealand’s Advanced Energy and Material Systems Lab called biofuels a “waste of time and money”.

Earlier this year, Air New Zealand announced that it would trial a Boeing 747 flight using blended biofuel, in late 2008 or early 2009. The flight is projected to take-off from Auckland, but will not carry passengers, the company said.

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