[xyz123]

Saw an interesting item in a newspaper today that I quote in its entirety below. I didn't know where diesel fuel comes from, I assumed it was a petroleum fraction like gasoline.

“French drivers ditching diesel in favour of vegetable oil”

“Some French motorists are dodging the near-record price of conventional oil by illegally using pure vegetable oil as a substitute for diesel, a French sunflower oil distributor said.

“At least 2,000 to 3,000 French motorists are using between 50 and 100 per cent pure vegetable oil in their tanks right now” said Alain Juste, manager of Valenergol.

Despite the European Union pushing for the development of pure vegetable oils as an alternative to traditional fuels, they have never been legally permitted in France. Motorists who use them risk being fined.

But in Germany, trucking companies are increasingly using normal rapeseed oil as a cheap fuel alternative to higher-grade rapeseed biodiesel.

Mr. Juste, who is also president of the Pure Vegetable Oil Institute, said he based his estimate on the 700 small-sized crushing machines currently in use. “most of the oil production goes in car tanks,” he said.

Mr. Juste , who has been producing vegetable oil for motorists for the last 12 years, says the interest in pure vegoil has multiplied by 30 in the last three to four months, when pump prices started to take off.

“Vegetable oil, which is either made from rapeseed or sunflower, costs 70 to 80 euro cents a litre compared to 1.18 euros ($1.67) a litre for diesel,” he added.

“Many motorists are also going straight to supermarkets to buy vegetable oil destined for human consumption,” he said.

However, usage of human consumption oil should not exceed 50 per cent in one’s tank and should be filtered, Mr. Just warned.”

Reuters

[longtran]

interesting. this should be in the thread. but interesting.

[spydrz]

Why could it possibly be illegal, and how would they know? Does the exhaust smell of pommes frites?

[F32Fleet]

Some of that has taken hold in the US. A couple of months ago the local TV station did a piece on some drivers who were using grease from resturants to power their old diesel MB's. They could switch between diesel and biodiesel.

[xyz123]

Originally Posted by longtran

interesting. this should be in the thread. but interesting.

Sorry about that if it is in fact off topic in this forum. It seemed to me though that judging from the signatures of posters, plenty of E90 diesels are being sold in Europe and the rest of the world, just not in the USA.

[E90Fleet]

Originally Posted by spydrz

Why could it possibly be illegal, and how would they know? Does the exhaust smell of pommes frites?

Would be illegal since its price doesnt include any road taxes

they test the diesel in trucks tanks to check for it

[gauthier]

Vegetable oil works only on old-generation diesel-engines. It will not work on a E90, witch uses the common-rail technologie. But I heard it is possible to adapt the engine. Price??

[Broken1]

South Africa is acutally developing refineries to manufacture diesel out of soya beans. I read an article which claimed 30% of south africa's diesel will be "biodiesel" made from soya beans, which will be mixed into the mineral diesel and sold at gas stations (petrol stations). In the future, cars could be running on 100% biodiesel, made from renuable soya beans.

That....and we can also make oil (for petrol) from coal.

[UncleWede]

Navy is experimenting with converting used (McDonald's, etc) fryer oil into biodiesel, and a lot of grass roots groups are making it. The stuff converted from fryer oil is reported to be able to go direct into any deisel engine, and the exhaust smells like whatever was fried in it.
A friend keeps jugs of used fryer oil in his backyard, picking them up where/whenever he can. All his cleaning trucks use it.

[UncleWede]

Coal derived deisel has HUGE amounts of sulphur, for the most part.

[Broken1]

Originally Posted by UncleWede

Coal derived deisel has HUGE amounts of sulphur, for the most part.

Coal derived normal petrol I mean

[thebigman]

I’m sure there is a warning in the manual of the diesel E90s against using bio-diesel and veg oil. In France 5% content of diesel is bio-diesel I’m led to believe.

VAG pump-duse diesels can run on pure veg oil - the fumes smell of a fish & chip shop though!

There was a story in the UK, I think it was Bolton infact, whereby a Tesco supermarket was selling huge amounts of veg oil. The rozzers cottoned on and they started doing random stop checks, not surprisingly fines were handed out for not paying the duty on the fuel.

[fredtoo]

Originally Posted by thebigman

There was a story in the UK, I think it was Bolton infact, whereby a Tesco supermarket was selling huge amounts of veg oil. The rozzers cottoned on and they started doing random stop checks, not surprisingly fines were handed out for not paying the duty on the fuel.

None of this is should really be shocking, as the majority of the cost of fuel, both here and abroad, is TAXES

Once the Tax man realizes he is not getting his cut, they get pissed.