What fuels will power the vehicles of tomorrow? One of the most ground-breaking projects presented at the World Bioenergy fair in Jönköping is a pellets-driven vehicle from Precer. The hybrid vehicle produces electricity with the aid of heat produced by solid biofuel. The vehicle is being developed by a joint Swedish and international consortium working together with Karlstad University. “We can use pellets and other kinds of solid biofuels – there’s a huge amount of plant fibre available,” says Precer CEO Martin Larsson.

The company’s prototype vehicle has a Stirling engine that produces electricity with the aid of pellets. Other propulsion systems that involve generating electricity from solid fuel are also being developed. The technology can also be used for small stationary generating plants. “We estimate the fuel consumption to be one kilo of pellets for every ten kilometres in a small hybrid vehicle,” Larsson says. “An 84-litre tank is enough to give an operating range equivalent to that of an ordinary small car.”