Back in September 2005 the German newspaper, Deutsche Welle, covered the story of a disgruntled biodiesel producer who was, he says, misquoted by another German paper Bild. The result of the misquote is a funny, if tragic, story which takes the old "put a tiger in your tank" slogan into a whole new light, and says much about the coverage of biofuels in daily papers. The piece from Deutsche Welle, is reproduced below, but I would be interested in any other similar offerings of idiosyncratic reporting of the biofuels industry.

"With the price of oil escalating, and the threat of global terrorism, the world is in need of a viable alternative to oil," Dr Christian Koch told reporters in Kleinhartmannsdorf. "So when I announced that I had developed a method to produce fuel from waste material, I had expected positive coverage of my pioneering technique. But instead the headline in the Bild newspaper last Wednesday was 'German inventor can turn cats into fuel - for a tank he needs 20 cats,' and ever since I've been receiving hate mail from animal rights campaigners.

"It's true that my technique could turn dead cats into organic diesel fuel, but so far I've never used a single one. Okay, the odd road or two may have jumped into my patented KDV 500 machine, and perhaps a couple of rabbits, but I mostly produce fuel from waste products such as paper, plastic and textiles, with only a few animals thrown in.

If I did use cats, each cadaver would produce about 2.5 litres of fuel, so yes, I would need about 20 cats to fill up my car's tank. But that's a theoretical calculation and I wish to make it clear that I've never actually used so much as a single kitten."

I have to thank the British satirical magazine Private Eye, and its spotter David Painter for bringing this delicious story to my attention.