Biodiesel

[syncropaddy]

I filled up the bus today with Biodiesel which is 25% diesel and 75% other stuff. I put 56 liters into her which brimmed it at a cost of €0.949 Euro per litre or in funny money £0.817p per litre. Diesel prices in this part of the world range from €1.01 to €1.10 per litre (£0.87 - £0.948)

Anyone else using this stuff?

[axeman]

my brother is running neat veg oil from macro or cost-co in his transit with no problems he gets 5l for about £3.50.

a bit of useless info i know..

neil

[peasant]

Do you mean pure plant oil or synthetic RME?

PPO is gloopy and can cause some filtering, timing and pressure challenges, but otherwise harmless ...RME on the other hand will eat the seals in your fuel pump

[Wolfsburg Willy]

Do you mean pure plant oil or synthetic RME?

PPO is gloopy and can cause some filtering, timing and pressure challenges, but otherwise harmless ...RME on the other hand will eat the seals in your fuel pump

In fact it will eat the seals/pipes etc. anywhere in the fuel system unless you replace them with components made from synthetic material - still it's a small price to pay for fuel at half the cost!

[peasant]

...only you can't replace the seals in your injection pump (or if you manage to get a set of new synthetic seals form somewhere, getting it and getting it installed will cost you so much that any savings from filling up with RME will be long gone)

[syncropaddy]

OK now I'm completely lost .....

PPO = pure plant oil, i.e. rape seed oil ...... right?
RME = ???????

The stuff I'm using is 25% diesel and 75% refined waste cooking oil and has better lubrication properties than straight diesel. I did check a few things out before I took the plunge including talking to a taxi driver who has used this stuff from this same supplier in his Honda Accord for the last 200,000 kms.

[peasant]

RME = Rapeseed Methyl Ester = chemically processed plant oil

(= "biodiesel" sold through normal (mineral oil) fuel suppliers)

Was run in Germany for example on a large-ish scale (still is afaik) and most manufacturers have since changed the rubbers and seals that come into contact with fuel to be RME suitable ex works. Unfortunately the materials used on our old buses aren't ...running RME will dissolve fuel lines and seals in no time.

On your refined waste oil it depends on what was done to it. If it was just filtered, you should be grand ...if it was esterised (or was it methylised? ...dunno, I'm no chemist) you could be in trouble.

[syncropaddy]

Ill check to see if those big strange word were done to it

[syncropaddy]

Yup RME but the Methanol is removed and diesel is added. Sure one tankful wont do any harm

[peasant]

I've heard horror stories on German forums where even one tank full of that stuff was enough to turn ailing injector pumps into diesel fountains.
Now ...how ailing is your pump after 20 years ??

I'd syphon it, tbh ...

[Sync or Swim]

I notice this very day that Morrison's now sell "Bio-Diesel" - no idea what it actually is (probably not pure wheat extract?) BUT another thing that I've noticed is that there is an entire forum on here devoted to "Alternative Fuels"

err... wouldn't that be a better place for this discussion?

R

[syncropaddy]

What???

You mean there is another world out there ..........

[peasant]

What???

You mean there is another world out there ..........

Some even say it's round ...surely that can't be right?

[futurecut]

A couple of summers ago i did about 2000 miles in my t4 with a mech fuel pump on makro veg. It was 9quid for 20 litres then so worth it and it didn't do it any harm. Was a bit quieter but then you could never really call a 19td t4 quiet.