How many people are using alternative fuels?

Mon

Mon

Mon

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I'm just curious I have been running previous cars on vegetable oil , and currently building a biodiesel reactor as my new car isn't suitable for oil consumption.

Can make bio for around £0.20 a litra and was getting veg oil which i filtered my self for around £0.10 a litre, very messing business though but justified with the cost I'm a student :p


This includes all forms any fuel excluding pump diesel or petrol.

Just curious.

poll mights be a good idea?
 
Are you saying that you are avoiding paying any tax on the fuel you are using then?

I do not use any alterantive fuels, I just wanted to point out that if you are making this in your shed and running around with it in your fuel tank on public roads, you are breaking the law.
 
Moeks said:
Are you saying that you are avoiding paying any tax on the fuel you are using then?

I do not use any alterantive fuels, I just wanted to point out that if you are making this in your shed and running around with it in your fuel tank on public roads, you are breaking the law.
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I didnt think you had to pay tax on it anymore and the law had changed for private use?
 
Moeks said:
Are you saying that you are avoiding paying any tax on the fuel you are using then?

I do not use any alterantive fuels, I just wanted to point out that if you are making this in your shed and running around with it in your fuel tank on public roads, you are breaking the law.
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no tax at all , you are allowed to use upto 2500l for personal use a year before you need to start paying duty. This has been like this for a couple of years. If you go over and use 2501 litres you need to pay duty on the lot around 40pence a litre for biodiesel.
 
I'd love to run on E85, but hardly anyone sells it. It would take me a fifth of a tank just to go and fill up.


M
 
GinG said:
can biodiesel be used in any diesel car, or do you need to get it converted?
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Not all cars are suitable I certainly wouldn't run a brand new car on bio, you can get issues with seals in the fuel system swelling and some injection pumps are sensitive, although most diesels before 2005 or so should be ok , although you may still get the issues mentioned certainly take extra care if your running a common rail diesel as these are allot less tolerant to bad fuel.

bad fuel can be:
1)incomplete reaction and oil in the final fuel.
2)methonal left in the fuel and not fully removed.
3)soaps not filterd/settled out.
4)fuel made from fats with high melting point e.g. palm oil ( can be used but will have a relativly high gel point, i.e. don't use in the winter.

again depends on the quality of the bio , older cars will run on anything :D not as tempremental.
Saying that twin tanking a car to run on veg is easier with older units that are compatible.
 
MikeHunt79 said:
I could pour veg oil in my car, but I don't really do enough miles for it to be worth the hassle.
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running on SVO straight vegetable oil isn't really worth it roughly 75p litre and contains around 10% less energy then diesel. You need to get the waste oil and filter it to save the money.

You should really convert you car to run on veg by twin tanking the car or at the very least install a heat exchanger. You injection pump will thank you.

Don't forgot the issues you can get with ring gumming and polymerisation.
Most pronounced on single tank conversions.

read http://www.vegetableoildiesel.co.uk/forum/viewthread.php?tid=2821 for more

although if you drive a shed.....
 
Moeks said:
I hadn't realised the law had changed, don't mind me then, I know nothing!
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HMRC spokesman says: "We can confirm that, with effect from 30 June, producers of biofuel of less than 2,500 litres annually will no longer need to pay any excise duty. Those producing up to 450,000 litres annually will only need to submit and pay returns quarterly.
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Our wagon that we had in Canada was Flex-Fuel so could take regular Gasoline or E85 (or any combination of the two). Didn't see a single place selling E85 in the three weeks we had it. :rolleyes:

Random question; would a Flex-Fuel engine make the same BHP on E85 as it does on Gasoline?
Specs were 4.7 L flex-fuel PowerTech V8, 235 hp (175 kW) at 4500 rpm and 300 lb·ft (407 N·m) at 3600 rpm
 
Westyfield2 said:
Random question; would a Flex-Fuel engine make the same BHP on E85 as it does on Gasoline?
Specs were 4.7 L flex-fuel PowerTech V8, 235 hp (175 kW) at 4500 rpm and 300 lb·ft (407 N·m) at 3600 rpm
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Depends on the ECU/tuning. My understanding is that ethanol has a lower calorific value than petrol but it allows the ignition timing to be advanced a lot. If your ECU can deal with this then it's about 10% extra power for nothing, but if it can't then you'll probably lose about the same.


M
 
Meridian said:
Depends on the ECU/tuning. My understanding is that ethanol has a lower calorific value than petrol but it allows the ignition timing to be advanced a lot. If your ECU can deal with this then it's about 10% extra power for nothing, but if it can't then you'll probably lose about the same.


M
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Ethanol is over 100 ron, or am i missing something?
 
I was thinking of getting the subaru converted to run e85. would have given a nice power increase with a remap but theres no garages near me i think the closest to me is weston super mare.

Tesco 99 super unleaded has 5% bioethanol in it.
 
Westyfield2 said:
Just googled it; E85 has an octane rating of 100–105 compared to regular US gasoline's typical rating of 85–93, and our petrol in the UK is 95-100 IIRC.
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got to be careful when compaing with the US as we use RON, and the US uses (RON+MON)/2 which will create a slightly loower octane number on exactly the same fuel.
 
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