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Upsetting the applecart #1 - carbon neutral biofuel
mark.yellow.series.3:
--- Quote from: "clbarclay" ---
--- Quote from: "mark.yellow.series.3" ---another carbon plus point for the series, is the avarage car has a life span of 8-10 years
--- End quote ---
An interesting point, but is that due to failure of the car or just a lack of demand for 10+ year old cars being the reason for most of them being scraped? After all what % of the population would want an old car if they can so easily have a newer model.
--- End quote ---
cars can be repaired, but whats the point when a new car is affordable.
Biodiesel-Bev:
I think most biofuel producers would agree that biofuel is not the definitive answer, only part of the solution in helping people to reduce their CO2 emissions.
We make biodiesel from used cooking oil; oil that has been used in restaurants etc, and if not recycled would probably go down the drain or in landfills. We collect the oil, filter it and process it into quality biodiesel. Using biodiesel produced from used cooking oil will give a smaller carbon footprint/CO2 emissions than quoted above.
The overal figures are, using 100% biodiesel reduces new emissions of carbon dioxide by 60-80%.
I completely agree that cutting down rain forests to plant palm is not the answer, but as fuel prices continue to rise (they sure as hell ain't going to fall much) people will look for alternative fuel sources. So why not utilise vegetable oil such as rapeseed, soya, sunflower etc. Many will argue that using these is using food for fuel. There are some oil producing plants that can grow where food based plants can't. In India, millions of hectares of wasteland are growing Jatropha which is used for the biofuel industry. It is growing where food crops will not grow. Jatropha also has a higher oil yield than rapeseed, it produces 1500 litres of oil per hectare compared to 1000 litres per hectare of rapeseed. It also takes in more CO2 than rapeseed, for the energy it supplies from the oil part of it.
There are many people who do not believe the news, articles, pictures, documentaries and scientific reports about global warming, but the Government and the EU does. The UK has to reduce its CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020 and by 50% by 2050, and as part of the Governments Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation many of the UK oil companies are already blending their fossil diesel with 5% biodiesel. Continuing to use fossil-diesel will not reduce CO2 emissions. The government will have to give drivers more incentive to lower their CO2 emissions by using alternative fuels, and this is already happening.
So, if biofuel isn't the answer, what is? Using public transport is fine if you live and work in London, but try getting 30 miles to work if you live in a rural area and start work at 7am. People will not give up their vehicles.
"The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may become, in the course of time, as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time" Rudolph Diesel (1858 - 1913)
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Smego:
I couldn't give ahoot about my carbon footprint!
Biodiesel-Bev:
--- Quote from: "Smego" ---I couldn't give ahoot about my carbon footprint!
--- End quote ---
And we wonder why 4x4 owners get bad press from the environmentalists?
Lee_D:
I'm glad I read this - My new (to me) RR won't run on Biofuel - I feel I'm not missing out so much now and relatively less of a climate criminal than I felt before you bought this to my attention.
I've also spent the weekend driving behind a disco running on 50 - 50 diesel - veg oil and can say the stink of BBQ had me battening down the air vents on the 110
Cheers Dave!
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