I was sent this press release today. It shows that businesses are trying. but veg oil might be a bit of a dead end. what do others think?
.............. The directors of The Payroll Site Ltd have made a commitment to the environment by running their cars on filtered waste cooking oil. Unlike many alternative fuels, waste vegetable oil is made from 100% waste and no greenhouse gases are produced in its processing or transportation.
Many initiatives that claim to be carbon neutral achieve this using carbon offsetting, where greenhouse gases are produced, but carbon credits are purchased to cancel out the effect. Waste vegetable oil can be a truly carbon neutral fuel (without offsetting) because the only greenhouse gasses released are those which would have been returned to the atmosphere during the normal disposal of the waste.
The Managing Director, Steven Tucker has been driving his Mercedes 190D since May 2007. He said "We want to highlight the fact that some cars can be run, with minor modification, on a freely available, cheap, sustainable and environmentally friendly form of fuel";. He added "It is better for the global environment than biodiesel, hybrid or 2nd generation technologies. In a way, vegetable oil can be considered a 0th generation biofuel - it was first publicly demonstrated in 1900, many years before cars were in common use."
The company tested the concept in 2007 using clean vegetable oil but has now registered with the environment agency and collects waste cooking oil from local restaurants and take-aways in the Barnet area. The waste oil is then filtered and made available to the directors and staff.
To find out more information about carbon neutral cars visit the Kenny Steven's website at http://www.carbon-neutral-car.com ............
daveg
16 Nov 2008, 4:38 PM
The answer to your question Keith is yes and no!
It is not the answer to our transport problems as there is seriously not enough land available in the world to grow all the rapeseed, linseed, palm oil etc to satisfy the ever-increasing global demand. But if it works at a local level for a few guys like Steve Tucker above then more power to his elbow. A smaller car would help though and make it stretch even further.
The moral of the tale, i guess is. Do whatever works for you in your situation as every effort will in some way help.
JohnB
16 Nov 2008, 7:30 PM
Do the directors of an online service need cars? I used to do accounts for small businesses providing a much more personal service, and rarely needed to visit my clients. Some could be visited by bike.
I found my clients by meeting face to face and gradually getting them to accept that communicating in cyberspace works. These people are getting their business online too.
daveg
8 Dec 2008, 3:20 PM
No they don't. Why has Keith posted this here? it is just like an advert
Steven Tucker (Guest)
30 Mar 2009, 10:23 AM
Hi everyone,
I just came across this thread about my car, so I though I would answer your questions.
Veg oil is not the whole answer for everyone, there simply isn't enough of it to go around. It is a useful resource which was mostly wasted until a few years ago. A lot of it is now used to create biodiesel, but I think this is less efficient than the way I use it.
We do not generally visit our customers, but a certain amount of travel is necessary to deal with business partners, suppliers etc. Using waste vegetable oil eliminates the net carbon emissions that this travel would otherwise cause.
Steven.
mark99
16 Oct 2009, 2:48 PM
May be in European and other developed countries Vegetable Oil can work well but this is not going to be feasible in Developing Asian and African countries as Petrol is preferred there..
will_bowden
30 Oct 2009, 2:27 PM
I use 50/50 Veg oil and Diesel in my 20 year old, 1/2 million miles covered, Land Rover as do many other Land Rover TDi owners. On a recent 500mile round trip I averaged 33.4MPG using this fuel.
This should ensure we have plenty of diesel left when the Hydrogen supply infastructure is up and running. Then we can retro fit hygrogen engines in our still perfectly servicable Land Rovers and merryily plod on enjoying every mile we travel.
If anyone has any queries about using Veg oil in a Land Rover TDi engine drop into the LandRoverAddict.com Forum, thers lots of good information on there.
Will
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