Diesels and Veg Oil

http://www.ravenfamily.org/andyg/vegoil.htm

http://www.vegetableoildiesel.co.uk/fuelsdatabase/database/index.php (see if your car has been run on diesel by anyone else)

Quite interesting reading. Will try a 10% mix in my Astra.
Anyone any experience with sticking cooking oil in your tank?

 

No, but I was recently in a car following a big van that obviously had, and the stench was appalling!
I think they must have filled it with used chip shop oil as it smelt like the worst chippy had been placed on a London bus.
Not nice! :chunder:

 

http://www.boulderbiodiesel.com/tim/Rudolph/

Follow the link for a history of the inventor. Thought it might be of interest here.

 

Oh dear. That first link is highly uninformed. Using vegetable oil as fuel DOES contribute to global warming and DOES NOT help toward the kyoto treaty. How? Simple... vegtable oil contains carbon. It is a hydrocarbon just like regular diesel is. Burn it and you get water and carbon dioxide (and a load of other stuff too).

As for saving money... By the time you've bought your vegetable oil at around 40p/litre, and paid your duty at around 40p/litre... was it worth it?

 

Also I believe commercial diesel has some extra lubrication in it which helps engines to last longer. That stuff won't, and do you really want to be driving round in clattering car that smells like a chip van?

The best way to save the plannet is to buy a bus pass or cycle. Or a buy a Skoda Fabria 1.9D - providing you can put up with a 0-60 time of 25 seconds.

 

Derv has different cetane ratings at different times ot the year. If i had a company car i would consider it. Remember cleaning diesel fuel lines cost a lot more than petrol, plus with copression ratio's of 22-1 'not much room for error'

 

The Cheshire County Council are using it, but it has added chemicals.

 

most advocate either mixing - typically between 10 and 30% oil to diesel or doing a bit of home chemistry to make a pretty credible facsimilie of forecourt diesel. either way there are some older cars (mercs mainly iirc) that will run on coal dust if you can get it fine enough!
the paperwork is a major hassle though.
cheers

julian

 

Yes but the CO2 released is that which has previously been absorbed by the plant making it Carbon Neutral (if you ignore the manufacturing processes to produce the oil) Conventional fuel is unlocking Carbon that has been locked underground for millions of years. Also regular oil has far more sulphur in it.

 

Absolutely. Its carbon neutral. In theory any CO2 produced from burning the stuff is reabsorbed by the plants grown to make the next batch - actually in theory it could even extract more CO2 than it generates as a lot of the carbon is trapped in the waste organic materials after the oil has been extracted (and then used for compost).

 

This is true. However, the total CO2 output of the vehicle will remain similar if run on veg oil or on diesel. And while that CO2 is in the atmosphere, it will contribute to global warming every bit as much as CO2 generated by a petrol car or from my breathing in and out.

Doing this on any large scale will require a large increase in production of oilseed crops. Along with that would be an increase in the use of agricultural machinery and fertilisers, along with the question of where to actually grow this much crop. Certainly it would be impossible to provide all of europe's diesel fuel needs from bio diesel through a simple lack of space.

Now I would be far happier to have cars running around using veg oil than diesel because I find diesel fumes extraordinarily unpleasant. And, given the level of carbon sinking that 100% biodiesel would provide I believe it would be a good thing. Refers back to the space problem though.

However, at 10% of the mix of 0.001% of the diesel vehicles on the road, once you take all the extra paperwork into account and the possibilities of mechanical issues with the car, etc, etc, etc it seems distinctly marginal on any grounds.

 

That site actually says that veg oil is a better lubricant than diesel...therefore you will actually get a smoother ride rather than a 'clattering' ride. Also at 10% you won't notice much of a smell difference, its when you start upping the percentage that the smell becomes apparent, anyway I think I'd prefer the smell of a chip van to that lovely smell of diesel fumes Burning veg oil has less sulphur and particulates than diesel so I would have thought it would have to be better.

By the way what so enviromentally friendly about a Skoda Fabia?!

 

True, but the CO2 that is released from veg oil was in the atmosphere only a couple of harvests ago. The CO2 from diesel is effectively new CO2 to the environment. Also environmental issues don't just stop at CO2...particulate pollution is what causes asthma in children amongst other things and veg oil has less of this.

Yes that is a long term issue although there is talk of getting it from algae farms.

Yes but its one small thing that you can do to reduce you're impact isn't it. I'm talking about this on a purely personal basis rather than as a global solution, as much as i'd like to see it as a global solution. I think I'll be chucking a few litres of veg oil in simply to save me some money and to get one back at the taxman. And filling in forms? Well you can if you want but I don't think I'd bother

 

Where we would grow the necessary crops if veggie diesel were seriously pursued is the main problem I see with this.

As to filling out the froms - well that's only an issue so long as a) we have to do it ourselves and b) the bureacrats insistence that if we do it ourselves we have to fill out the forms (because the govt doesn't want to lose out on tax revenue).

It could be dealt with instantly by the govt not putting duty on vege oil fuel - the cost being the huge revenues the govt would lose as a result of not getting the duty on vege oil fuel (billions of pounds of it, I'm sure )