Running on green...

[Colinn]

I gather that new regulations came into force last week requiring that all petrol and diesel sold on UK forecourts contain a small percentage of fuel from plant sources. Can our fuel experts tell us whether we can expect to notice any difference in terms of mileage, performance or engine wear??

 

[Damian]

Colinn, a friend of mine, whose son is a chemist at the Fawley refinery was telling me only today about this addition of bio fuel to "normal" fuels, and he, the son, reckons that we will not see any improved MPG, but more likely to see reduced MPG.

I do not know how true this is, but my guess is that he is right, and if it has anything Government related to do with it, you may bet better MPG was not on the agenda.

 

[ColinA]

If you live in Scotland Northern Ireland or the north of england you will be lucky to have any fuel for the next few weeks by the sound of it.

Colin.

 

[waffler]

Colinn, you should not notice any difference. The Diesel engine was originally designed to run on peanut oil. The consumption is determined by the length of the molecule that makes the oil. Diesel has about 14 carbon links in it which when broken up by burning give the energy. The plant oil used or more probably old fish and chip oil is treated to give this molecule. Source is unimportant.

Petrol has a chain of about 8 or 9, which explains why we get more mpg from Diesel, (there's more energy in each molecule) but also have a number of other chemicals including benzene and ethanol. The latter can be made from oil but under the new law will have to be made from plants.

A side point is that Diesel fuel needs much less processing than petrol so why does it cost more? Tax?

 

[RogerL]

The end product, diesel or petrol, has to meet a specific standard regardless of source. The whole point of a standard is to ensure that an engine performs the same regardless of the fuel source.