Booze smugglers help fuel Sweden

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Smugglers trying to sneak alcohol into Sweden are unwittingly helping fuel the country's public transport system and reducing its greenhouse emissions.

Almost all of the 185,000 gallons of smuggled alcohol seized by the customs service last year was turned into alternative fuel and used to power buses, trucks and a biogas train, officials said Friday.

"We used to just pour it down the drain, but because of the increased volumes we had to look around for new solutions," customs spokeswoman Ingrid Jerlebrink said.

The beer, wine and liquor is taken to a plant 125 miles southwest of Stockholm, where it is heated and converted into biogas.

Biogas is used in Sweden to power some 1,000 trucks and buses and one train, said Carl Lilliehook, head of Svensk Biogas AB, which handles most of the confiscated alcohol. He said a quart of pure alcohol is enough to make about a tenth of a gallon of biogas.

The project also helps the country's efforts to reduce its dependency on fossil fuels.

In 2003, about one-quarter of the energy consumed in Sweden came from renewable sources, compared with the 6 percent average for the European Union, according to EU statistics.