Biodiesel? Anyone had any experience?
01 February 2004, 01:07 AM
#1
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Mornin' all,
I was wondering whether anyone could give some first hand experience of this. I have a feeling it was covered here sometime ago....
Anyway, would appreciate any info, good or bad.
Cheers and thanks,
Mossman
I was wondering whether anyone could give some first hand experience of this. I have a feeling it was covered here sometime ago....
Anyway, would appreciate any info, good or bad.
Cheers and thanks,
Mossman
01 February 2004, 11:02 PM
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We ran my mate's mondo TD on veg oil (rape seed) last summer.
It worked quite well until it cloged up all the fuel filters and the fuel pump had to be replaced (costing £800...). That was on pure, off the shelf stuff. We should have added thinners (most people recommend about 3% thinners to 97% veg oil.)
Biodiesel is deisel mixed with a little veg oil. (5% I think.) This obviously is less thick than pure veg oil so doesn't need thinners. I think this is available in the US and in Europe.
A friend, who is an operations manager, was looking into it for his lorries. DAF said the warranty covers Biodiesel (up to 5% veg oil, i think) but not pure veg oil.
Also, if you go the veg oil route (22p a litre from Tesco), you do have to declare it, and pay tax. I think it increases the cost to around 38p a litre.
Hope this helps
It worked quite well until it cloged up all the fuel filters and the fuel pump had to be replaced (costing £800...). That was on pure, off the shelf stuff. We should have added thinners (most people recommend about 3% thinners to 97% veg oil.)
Biodiesel is deisel mixed with a little veg oil. (5% I think.) This obviously is less thick than pure veg oil so doesn't need thinners. I think this is available in the US and in Europe.
A friend, who is an operations manager, was looking into it for his lorries. DAF said the warranty covers Biodiesel (up to 5% veg oil, i think) but not pure veg oil.
Also, if you go the veg oil route (22p a litre from Tesco), you do have to declare it, and pay tax. I think it increases the cost to around 38p a litre.
Hope this helps
01 February 2004, 11:43 PM
#4
the dj is correct, we looked at this for our new tractor units.
For warranty purposes we have had to fit aluminium fuel tanks to the lorries as apparently biodiesel is quite corrosive and we have also had to fit additional water separators.
Standard biodiesel in the UK is a 5% blend and the manufacturer were happy for us to use this, based on the above modifications. Any blend greater than this, the manufacturer would require reduced service intervals to maintain the warranty.
Bear in mind when people talk about a 5% biodiesel, this means that the finished product is 95% standard diesel, 5% biodiesel. The 5% biodiesel content is then a further blend itself of appx 20% veggie oil and 80% standard diesel. So the veggie oil content is usually 20% of 5% of the overall content i.e quite small.
We did talk about using used cooking oil, but the manufacturer nearly dropped dead when we suggested that!
Check out the company below for more info:
http://www.greenergy.com/products/other_biodiesels.html
In saying all of the above we haven't actually tried it yet, so can't comment on its performance.
IanF
djm: you missed a trick and left the beer in the boot
For warranty purposes we have had to fit aluminium fuel tanks to the lorries as apparently biodiesel is quite corrosive and we have also had to fit additional water separators.
Standard biodiesel in the UK is a 5% blend and the manufacturer were happy for us to use this, based on the above modifications. Any blend greater than this, the manufacturer would require reduced service intervals to maintain the warranty.
Bear in mind when people talk about a 5% biodiesel, this means that the finished product is 95% standard diesel, 5% biodiesel. The 5% biodiesel content is then a further blend itself of appx 20% veggie oil and 80% standard diesel. So the veggie oil content is usually 20% of 5% of the overall content i.e quite small.
We did talk about using used cooking oil, but the manufacturer nearly dropped dead when we suggested that!
Check out the company below for more info:
http://www.greenergy.com/products/other_biodiesels.html
In saying all of the above we haven't actually tried it yet, so can't comment on its performance.
IanF
djm: you missed a trick and left the beer in the boot
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