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Why cars in this vast country need too much fuel

(Bild: Hronek Eveline)

While exhaust fumes from hundreds of millions of liters of fuel are blown into the air in Lower Austria every year, local schoolchildren are working on biofuel. This is to be obtained from wood using a tree sponge.

Sticking to combustion engines is currently the top transport policy priority of the governing majority in Lower Austria. Although the 3-liter car promised by car manufacturers back in the 1990s is still a long way off. After all, this would reduce fuel consumption in the state by half, note experts from the Verkehrsclub (VCÖ): "And the costs for households too, of course."

Many car models are too heavy and too powerful
This is because the average consumption of cars is just under 6 liters per 100 kilometers. "This means that private car owners in Lower Austria fill up with 750 million liters of petrol and diesel every year," calculates VCÖ expert Katharina Jaschinsky: "The efficiency gains made by engines in recent decades are being negated by the increased weight and overpowering of many models." However, fuel-saving driving under the motto "gliding instead of rushing" can save fuel and 15 to 20 percent of costs as well as prevent exhaust fumes, explains Jaschinsky.

The latter is also the goal of Sabina Schwarz and Jonas Leutgeb. As part of their diploma thesis, the graduates of the Umwelt-HLW in Yspertal have been working on a process to produce bioethanol from wood using a tree sponge, which can be used as biofuel. After "many sleepless nights", the young people were able to achieve scientific success, but are certain: "A lot of research work is still needed to use this process commercially.