Biodiesel

[Amadeus]

Just back from the Motor Show, and a chap two stands down from ours handed me a leaflet about Biodiesel - while he did that, he mentioned that they will sell this type of fuel at their station over here soon.

 

They don't have a website yet, but a link on their leaflet is quite good for some info about B100 Biodiesel - clickey.

 

Basic story is, that it appears to be suitable for most Diesel vehicles, while being better for the environment - according to their leaflet, B100 reduces Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions on average by up to 75% and Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) emissions by almost 100% compared to mineral/sulphur diesel. And the stuff is made from renewable and recycled resources - sounds good to me..

 

Although it might look like a bit of advertising (I have no connections with that business whatsoever), I think they deserve a mention - The station selling it is the Fairy Cottage Filling Station, and planned opening is within 10 days. I guess there will be something in the press as well, and he also mentioned that it will be cheaper than normal Diesel - so you can do something for the environment while saving money - right down my street, that..

 

Now, how do you convert a Jag V12 to that stuff?....

[Juan Kerr]

Now, how do you convert a Jag V12 to that stuff?....

 

There's a company in Manchester that will be an LPG converstion on any classic Jag for around £850. Thats zero emissions and better mileage. Hard to justify on Manx mileage but better for the environment.

 

I'm really glad that someone is doing bio-diesel here. They can count me in as a buyer. I would go for it my choice.

 

However; I would want someone to confirm that your guaranteed no damage over and above standard diesel and that it won't invalidate my manufacturers warranty. Anyone know anything about warranties where non standard fuel is used?

[John Wright]

In Spain virtually every fuel station has it and it is a few cents cheaper

 

It is ceratinly renewable but I cannot see waht thye recduction in CO2 is caused by, the chemistry is almost the same

 

Burn a hydro carbon fuel and you get mainly CO2 and H2O

 

I am led to believ that Jaguar are considering a turbo dioesel XK8

[Bombay Bad Boy]

Isn't someone already doing it on the island?

Having an old and rattly diesel meself, I may look into this someday.

 

There are 2 ways of going about this:

1) You can convert your car to run off chip fat

2) You can do alchemy on chip fat, to make something that a diesel engine can run off.

 

This is more likely to work on older engines, say pre-1995. Anything modern with high-pressure injectors, common rail, anything like that, will be like trying to survive on deep-fried mars bars.

Merc 190's are apparently quite good at this.

[John Wright]

The Spanish bio diesel is a mix of mineral, ie petroleum derivative with the bio mixed in. I think it is 5%

 

As usual there is a EU standard. So amend my previous post

 

What effect will biodiesel have on vehicle warranty? None, so long as the blended fuel used complies with European Standard EN 590.

 

That is 5%

 

Biodiesel has 20pence per litre less tax, so a 5% = 1 pence per litre at the pump.

 

Bio diesel emits just the same CO2 as mineral diesel but of course the growing plants it is produced from photosynthesise this so it is carbon neutral.

 

You can convert a diesel to run on biodiesel, expensive. It leaves sticky residues, just like your cooking oil and it increases the emission nof NO2 when burned or used to fuel a vehicle

 

There has been little work on otyher emissions but it is not good on particulate emission either, ie tyhe balck smoky carbon diesels emit which adds to lung disesease.

[Pat Ayres]

If you have an older diesel you can save even more money.

Buy only half a tank at a time and fill it up with heating oil straight from your neighbours garden tank.

You need to mix it to get the lubricants your fuel pump needs to keep working.

I don't know the relevant prices, because I don't pay them both, but it works out quite cheap.

I would buy Bio Diesel if it were widely available, but as they only mix 5% it fear it could hurt the engine.

[Cholmondley-Warner]

Isn't someone already doing it on the island?

Having an old and rattly diesel meself, I may look into this someday.

 

There are 2 ways of going about this:

1) You can convert your car to run off chip fat

2) You can do alchemy on chip fat, to make something that a diesel engine can run off.

 

This is more likely to work on older engines, say pre-1995. Anything modern with high-pressure injectors, common rail, anything like that, will be like trying to survive on deep-fried mars bars.

Merc 190's are apparently quite good at this.

 

The guy at Ballagarey has been stopped. Seems he was making the stuff in a cowshed and due to the fact he was using methanol (the catalyst used to break the vegetable oil down into a usable product) which is highly combustible and heavier than air, his insurers threatened to pull the plug on his cover. The guys who intend selling biodiesel at Fairy Cottage will be importing it from the UK from a recognised supplier and will not be making it themselves with a Kenwood blender, hose pipe and funnel.

[Roger Smelly]

Bio diesel actually is better for your engine than petrolium diesel.

 

The only thing with bio diesel is it wears out rubber hoses but if you use 50% petrolium diesel and 50% bio i am sure you would have no problems.

 

Just nip to the total in laxey fill half your tank then top it up at the fairy filling station.

 

i know someone who uses it and the only side effect is the car fumes smell like pop corn lol

 

I will be popping up to top up.

 

its about £0.65p to £0.75p a litre i think

 

so for 40 litres it is £41.20 for normal diesel and £30.00 for bio

 

Remmember most of the money you pay on fuel is tax, so bio is the way to go in my book.

 

Also a friend told me you can put Redex diesel in the tank aswell if you want to protec your engine more.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel

[Gladys]

The man at the motor show said it would be 95p per litre.

[Roger Smelly]

http://www.vegoilmotoring.com/

 

the other guy charges 75p a litre

[maggle]

I was interested in this stuff for a while and followed it up by speaking to a guy in the UK who is a distributor. After checking his books he said "Yes, your car should be ok" I asked him about the "should be" bit but he couldn't give me a straight answer but maintained that "it should be fine"

 

He was knocking it out for 75p per litre but it was just too much of a risk. Until someone can assure me 100% that putting this stuff in my car won't cause any harm, problems or anything untoward whatsoever, I'll be sticking with the normal pumped stuff. Personally, I think the busses should use it. It may cut some of the clouds of sheeite that they pump out.

[John Wright]

Commercial bio is 5 % bio 95% mineral and does not infringe warranties.

 

Anything else, either brand new Mazola or recovered chip fat diesel pure or 50% mixed with mineral diesel will bugger your injectors and invalidate your warranty. If you use Mazola from the supermarket you are supposed to go to Customs and Exise and pay the duty!

 

To run on anything more than 5% bio, you need to make significant alterations to stop gumming up

 

As a youngster I knew someone who lived on Friary Park when it had a central oil supply piped and metered to all the houses. His greenhouse had the lowest drain cock. He added an second tank started on diesel and then changed to the heating oil when running. The system went broke and everyone was given an oil tank of their own. I wonder why?

[stookie]

Does this stuff give you the same bang for the buck? If it doesn't, you may end up no better off if it takes a heavier right foot to do the same amount of work.

[John Wright]

Less bang for the litre in pure form, but as it is mixed with mineral diesel so it forms only 5% of the mix it is not noticeable. As it is taxed at alower rate you get more bang for the buck.

 

Interestingly the experts who say we should use it then go on to admit that if all the land in GB which is set aside for EU agriculture was utilised it would only be enough to provi8de 4% of our diesel needs. Half the land is unsuitable. So that is only 2%. And that does not begin to address petrol volume.

 

The same statistics apply throughout the EU, so we cannot be self sufficient and use it to replace fossil.

 

The final downside is that we have to grow oil seed rape everywhere with nasty yellow fields and pollen and potentially higher pollen counts and allergies. In other words we are replacing one pollutant with another

[Albert Tatlock]

The final downside is that we have to grow oil seed rape everywhere with nasty yellow fields and pollen and potentially higher pollen counts and allergies. In other words we are replacing one pollutant with another

Pollen isn't a pollutant.