Biofuel

Saruman

The EU has decreed that by the end of 2005 (i think) 1% of all cars should be able to and using Biofuels. This is good news for the environment and possibly for our pockets too as long as the government dont tax too much.

Bio fuels are made from biological ingredients like rapeseed oil and all kinds of crops like sugar.

Its nothing new, people have been modifying Diesel engines to run on alcohol and even Vegetable Fat!! Yup go to your local chipper and get their old oil they throw out.

Silvera

Ireland should be leading the world (as we did with the workplace smoking ban!) in Biofuel development and rapeseed production.

Rather than being paid(!) to leave their land idle (as is currently the case with much of Irelands agricultural land) farmers should be encouraged to grow rapeseed for biofuel production.

Pat Kenny recently had a professor from Cork (?), on his radio show, who is ready to put biofuel into full production if the necessary funds/incentives were put in place by the govt.

Seth Brundle

I remember being down in Oak Park in Carlow and they had tractors & a car running on bio-diesel produced there from Oil Seed Rape. Nothing came of it!
On a similar note the German Govt have opened a petrol station in Berlin which supplys Hydrogen in both gaseous form (Compressed Gaseous Hydrogen) and liquid hydrogen which currently is being developed into production trials by BMW.
Read their PR stuff:-

BMW CleanEnergy.
The motivation behind this innovative new concept is clear: hydrogen is the fuel of the future. It reduces dependence on other natural resources and eliminates CO2 emissions, which are responsible for the greenhouse effect. And if renewable energy is used to generate hydrogen for use in cars, the entire cycle is environmentally friendly.
BMW has created an engine which uses hydrogen as its source of energy and which is as dynamic and agile as every other BMW powerplant. Very similar to a series production automobile, the BMW 745h from 2001 shows just what the company can do.
Its bivalent 4.4 litre, V-eight engine can run on either hydrogen or petrol, and its performance figures are more than merely impressive: 135 kW (182 hp) of power and a top speed of 215 km/h. It can cover 300 km on a full tank of hydrogen, plus 650 km on petrol. The first series production hydrogen BMWs will be on the market during the availability period of the current 7 Series.

Saruman

This could also help reduce war and conflict.. since a lot of it is down to OIL!! Anyway yeah no more Iraq problem then

If only we could wipe out religion too !!

Green Driver

I have been using rapeseed oil in a 2004 diesel Skoda Octavia since April 2006 and I am pleased with the performance. I bought the Skoda second hand and I spent about €2,000 euro, including VAT, getting it adapted to run on pure vegetable oil.

I got the car in February 2006 and used diesel in it for 2 months. After I switched to using rapeseed oil, there was no reduction in performance. The car does about 40 miles to the gallon.

The car was adapted by Allen Holman (DAS Garage,Gorey, Co Wexford), http://www.ecocar.ie/, and Peter O'Neill (Kilpedder, Co Wicklow) http://www.ecomotion.ie/.

I buy rapeseed oil fuel for my car from Eilish Oils, http://www.eilishoils.com/
They sell the rapeseed oil in 1,000 litre plastic containers which you can put in your garden and get refilled by them as necessary. I call into a place in Dun Laoighaire owned by one of the directors of Eilish Oils and get my car filled there at 84 cent a litre.

The rapeseed oil sold by them is exempt from excise duty, but they pay VAT on it.

It is physically (but it may be illegal if you do not pay VAT) possible to use rapeseed oil of the right quality bought in a shop as fuel in a diesel car which is able to run on rapeseed oil. I do not know if other vegetable oils, such as sunflower, or olive, oil, could be used as fuel.

Apparently, vegetable oil sold as food is zero rated for VAT, so if you use it as fuel, which is subject to VAT, you might be breaking the law. I am going to make enquiries to see if it is possible to arrange to pay the VAT on oil bought as food and then use it as fuel.

colm_mcm

Most Octavia diesel drivers claim 55mpg.

andreas_220D

Saruman wrote:

Its nothing new, people have been modifying Diesel engines to run on alcohol and even Vegetable Fat!!

Alcohol in a diesel engine?

Idleater

I don't know if this thread is specific to BioDiesel, but Ethenol is hopefully going to be big in the near future.

The Ford Focus FFV is the first in the line of the e85 cars - that run on 85% ethenol.

I believe that most modern petrol engines will run on a mix of 10 - 16 % ethenol and the rest petrol, and a 5-8% ethenol mix in with petrol is actually a performance enhancer.

I read up in the manual for my bike that it will hapily run without conversion on 85%petrol 15% ethenol and I believe that there are some petrol stations that are going to be stocking such mixes as well as the e85 in the near future if not already.

BioEthenol is "green" because the alcohol is recovered from crops that grow in 6-12 months so it is almost carbon neuteral which is a good start before proper conversions are allowed to e85.

L.

Guy:Incognito

Hypothetically, what happens if no-one (being private citzens and allowed to choose) decides they want their cars running on biofuel? Do a certain amount of peopl eget forced to buy biofuel vehicles?:)

Anan1

Stekelly wrote:

Hypothetically, what happens if no-one (being private citzens and allowed to choose) decides they want their cars running on biofuel? Do a certain amount of peopl eget forced to buy biofuel vehicles?:)

I would assume that, if the law requires 1% of new cars sold to run on biofuel, then the manufacturers would face fines if they broke the law. In this situation, it would presumably suit them to discount the biofuel cars until they sold in sufficient quantities.

maidhc

Anan1 wrote:

I would assume that, if the law requires 1% of new cars sold to run on biofuel, then the manufacturers would face fines if they broke the law. In this situation, it would presumably suit them to discount the biofuel cars until they sold in sufficient quantities.

Directive 2003/30/EC specifies that

Member States should ensure that a minimum proportion of biofuels and other renewable fuels is placed on their markets, and, to that effect, shall set national indicative targets.

(i) A reference value for these targets shall be 2 %,
calculated on the basis of energy content, of all
petrol and diesel for transport purposes placed on
their markets by 31 December 2005.

(ii) A reference value for these targets shall be 5,75 %,
calculated on the basis of energy content, of all
petrol and diesel for transport purposes placed on
their markets by 31 December 2010.

The EU, rather sensibly, want lots of cars running at a low concentration of biofuels instead of a few cars running completely on them.