The Mitsubishi Pajero Owners Club®

Mark_m8 · ** Joined: 14 Feb 2003 Posts: 71 Location: UK

I have been reading all sorts of stuff on the net about Bio Diesel and its benefits.

It appears this is probably the best alternative fuel source available now, it is cheap, environmentally friendly and legal. Even the government has acknowledged this by reducing the duty to 23p. Therefore you could (legally) go to your local chippy collect their waste oil, filter it, pay the duty and run your car for 23p (+vat I think).

Yippee I hear you say but theres more.

A number of companies will do all the dirty work for you and will either deliver drums of the stuff to you ready for use or (you lucky sods) even have concessions with local garages, so you just fill and go (sorry for the shampoo add phrasing Very Happy

).

Now comes some stuff to think about.

Red Kens congestion charge- Now we all know that because it seems to have worked in London in the next 5 years you won't be able to drive on a motorway, through any cities, towns or even a few small villages without stumping up your fiver.

The Local councils will probably see this as a great source of revenue and therefore as each wants it revenue you could drive allong 2 motorways and visit 3 towns and that would cost you £25 thank you very much.

Well heres the rub Ken in his infinite wisdom has exempted mopeds and electric cars form the charge on the ground they are enviromentally friendly.

But that makes no sense mopeds run on petrol and electric cars are about as un envonmentaly friendly as you get. Does Ken want a power station built within his charging zone to recharge all thes batteries, I don't think so.

So what of bio diesel all the tests show this is environmentaly friendly and sustainable. Surely this should be exempted to.

Now I know in the UK we are a pretty appethetic lot but the writing is on the wall people.

Lobby your MPs, write to you local paper, join bio diesel groups and start trying to use bio diesel and get it recognised as a true green alternative.

If you don't then you won't only be paying all those speeding ticket but also a road charge for the privalage.

Where does the Gulf war fit in? Well 2 things why do you think Bush wants to go to war in the 1st place and it got your attention didn't it.

Sorry to go on I'll climb off my soapbox now but please think about what I've said and do something possitive befor it is to late.

At least do a search in google for bio diesel and read about it for youselves.

Mark_m8

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Mark_m8 · ** Joined: 14 Feb 2003 Posts: 71 Location: UK

If anyones interested here is a great link with loads of info on biodiesel

http://www.northwales.org.uk/bio-power/index.htm

They also have a great links page.

If anyone has any experience of using bio diesel I'd love to know if it's as good as they claim.

Mark_m8

MarkyMark · * Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 14 Location: South Wales

Mark

I agree the writing is definately on the wall just look at how all the local councils jumped on the speeding camera bandwagon.

Not to depressing Sad

I have also been reading up on this and wondered if anyone has thought of setting up buyers clubs or producer groups.

It looks to me that one man production is possible but if a group gets together then certainly there would be economies of scale.

Biodiesel certainly seems to be the way to go.

MarkyMark

Navigatorone · Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2003 0:44 Post subject:

It is a shame that that North Wales firm only sell that bio fuel in 1000 ltr containers. If it was 500 ltrs I would get some of their bio power V100 fuel to try it at 65p per litre.

Still I may give them a call as I live in North Wales.

Keith

Mark_m8 · ** Joined: 14 Feb 2003 Posts: 71 Location: UK

Keith

I have been very tempted to have one of their tanks delivered.

Only 10-12 fillups for a 2.8 LWB.

But there is a problem by the time you factor in delivery and the cost of the tank that pushes the price up to nearly 83pence per litre so no saving.

I would imagine the tanks are on sale/return so once you have one then you just exchange it with each refill.

I am suprised no one has replied to say if the fuel is any good still maybe if you pop over and get a tankfull maybe you can let me know whether it lives up to their claims.

Certainly if it gives a 10-15% improvement in fuel economy then it will be worth looking at.

Let me know how you get on.

Regards

Mark_m8

Cracker · Newbie Joined: 03 Mar 2003 Posts: 5

Mark_m8

I drove for many years on the continent and I can say that the Bio Diesel is better- I'll say that again for the hard of hearing- BIO DIESEL IS BETTER than fossil diesel.

It is readily available all over the continent and if you drive in France you will have used it.

It gives more miles per gallon and the engine actually runs quieter and much cleaner.

If it was readily available here then I would use it all the time. Even if it were slightly more expensive than Fossil Diesel you would easily recoup the difference in MPG and servicing costs.

I think the only reason that the UK and America don't want to promote this fuel is that it would desimate oil prices if they did (although there would be some very happy farmers).

The other green alternatives all rely on Fossil fuels in some way.

LPG = Refined fossil Fuel (promoted by Gov)
Electric = Generators - rely on fosil Fuel (Promoted by Gov)
Fuel Cells = Use fossil Fuels for hydrogen conversion (Promoted by Gov)
ULSDiesel= Fossil Fuel (Promoted by Gov)

Bio Diesel= No Fossil Fuel and fully renewable with lower emissions (not Promoted by Gov)

Can you see a pattern here?

Cracker

Paul Mayer · * Joined: 29 Oct 2002 Posts: 24 Location: London

On a similar thread. I filled up recently with Sainsbury's new "Global"diesel. Its not available at all branches yet but is well worth trying. Its only 5% bio-diesel, combined with ultra low sulpher diesel (apparently the motor manufactures will only honour warrenties up to this level) but I can't belive the differance. My 2.8 Delica is deffinatly a bit quicker but whats most noticable is the reduction in noise, esspecialy when cold where the typical diesel clatter has almost been eliminated. I kept yawning, thinking my ears needed "popping" as its so quiet! Economy seems to have inproved but haven't done accurate checks yet. 5% doesn't seem enough to make any differance but it does, I'd love to try 100% bio diesel. At least the 5% bio diesel has drawn its CO2 from the atmophere before its release, rather than sources that should have remained burried!

paul

Mark_m8 · ** Joined: 14 Feb 2003 Posts: 71 Location: UK

Has anyone noticed the Diesel price seems to have just jumped up by 3-4p a litre everywhere Mad

In fact most Garages seem to be charging more for Diesel than Petrol.

Paul: What price did you pay for the 5% Bio Diesel and does it smell any different?

Cracker: Nice to hear confirmation of what I had read on the net. Thanks.
Do you have any idea of how much better fuel consuption would be?

2 positive posts and nothing negative.

I think I am going to give bio diesel a go and call the North Wales Guys.

Watch this space For an update.

Mark_m8

Cracker · Newbie Joined: 03 Mar 2003 Posts: 5

Mark_M8

I worked out that on bio I was getting around 28-32 miles to the gallon in a 2.8 LWB but only around 24 with normal.

Interestingly the improvement with Bio seemed to last for a while once I went back to normal so there must be some residual cleaning/lubrication left over.

Let me know how you get on with the Bio guys.

If they are good I may be tempted as well

Cracker

Paul Mayer · * Joined: 29 Oct 2002 Posts: 24 Location: London

Can't remember exactly how much I paid for the "Global" diesel at Sainsbury's but it was the same as thier regular diesel had been a week before. That was a couple of weeks ago and as already pointed out, diesel seems to have crept up, unanounced by 3-4p. Definatly worth trying though. Still haven't got round to doing full economy calculations yet but just going by the gauge (not accurate, I know!) it seems noticibly better.
Will let you know asap,

Paul

Mark_m8 · ** Joined: 14 Feb 2003 Posts: 71 Location: UK

Paul

Does the 5% stuff smell of veg oil ?

Cracker

I have called the Bio Guys in North Wales but can't seem to get any reply other than an answer phone and they don't phone back.

Does anyone else know of a firm that will deliver?

Mark_m8

ian · ** Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 80 Location: Berkshire

I run a petrol Paj but this may help;
a couple of my J##P driving mates are always banging on about a company called Envirodiesel http://www.envirodiesel.co.uk and they also recommend the following http://www.veggies.org.uk/biodies.htm#supplier for other suppliers.

hth

geo · Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2003 12:40 Post subject:

Mark_m8 · ** Joined: 14 Feb 2003 Posts: 71 Location: UK

Geo

Now there's a thought Twisted Evil

But we wouldn't want to encourage anything illegal would we Wink

I wonder if you just added a litre at every fill up if that would be classed as an additive like redex or should we all register and send in a return for 1-2 litres a month to customs and excise. Maybe 4-5000 deisel car owners all sending in returns for a couple of litres would swamp them and get them to leave us alone. Twisted Evil

Mark_m8

Cracker · Newbie Joined: 03 Mar 2003 Posts: 5

Sounds like a good approach to me I believe there are around 10 million diesel vehicles in the uk.

If we could get 10% to send in forms that might make them look up and see sense.

Twisted Evil