Selfsufficientish.com

Hiya,
I caught the tail-end of an advert on TV by BP saying that they have put x-amount of money into BIO-something for petrol cars by using natural products - can someone explain it to me please? What are they using instead? Why hasnt someone done it before? Are there not companies that sell bio-diesel? I have seen several green programmes where they make their own and it does seem quite laborious, so why hasnt a large company jumped onto this product and have it at the pumps next to your lead-free etc? Surely there is knowledge that people are trying to go green and that there would probably be a market for these products?
Thanks Wendy

I think that they are putting money into the possibilities for a biodiesel infulstructure. - not sure of the finer details though.

I think we are about to see a lot of adverts from oil companies and motor manufacturers telling us all about their green credentials, and how good for the environment they are.

The trouble with producing biodiesel is that it ends up more expensive than mineral diesel. In the UK there is a tax break of around 20 pence per litre, and that brings it down to about the same price.

If you hunt around, there are small scale producers of biodiesel around (or you can do it yourself in your garden shed), but the larger oil cos seem more interested in producing a 5% mix (ie. 95% mineral diesel, 5% bio). It is at this point, AIUI, that they can use the word 'bio-' in the description of the product (in France it only needs to be 2%).

There are several biodiesel forums around. There are links to some of them on this page, as well as a recipe for making your own. It is probably as good as any as a starting point.

I've expressed my concerns about the notion that biodesel will answer all our problems on here before (it won't), but vegetarians, muslims, hindus, and other ethnic sects may also like to know that biodiesel can include stuff made from animal waste too, and there will be no way of telling it apart. Kosher diesel, anyone?

As for bio-petrol - I imagine this will be ethanol (alcohol) which is already widely used in Brazil (Wikipedia has a bit about it here). If we all convert to that, expect whole countries to be given over to a GMO cash-crop monoculture of biomass, controlled by tyrants, and perpetuating third world poverty.

Muddypause wrote: . Kosher diesel, anyone?.

No mate! I won't touch it unless it is halal too!

Nev

Im afraid this is greenwash.
BP made 11 BILLION pounds (give or take) profit last year.
They spend it by advertising that they are investing 250 million pounds over 10 years into biofuels.

So about 2% of last years profits , stretched over the next 10 years.

Not much of a commitment - infact, a sum, probably much less than their advertising budget.

They are in fact (and advertising this fact in the US) about to invest several billion pounds searching for oil and gas in the gulf of mexico.

They're an oil company. They like to throw a bit of cash around pretending that they're not

In fact if you look at the wording of the advert is says "We ARE PLANNING to spend [however many million on biodiesel research]", they haven't spent a penny yet.

They must be busting.