Selfsufficientish.com

Germany Backs Away from Biofuels

Berlin has abandoned plans to increase the percentage of ethanol in gasoline sold at the country's pumps. New projections estimate that up to 3 million cars would have been unable to run on the higher mixture.


http://www.spiegel.de/international/ger ... 19,00.html


OK - maybe not for the right reasons, but a step in the right direction anyway...

Just shows I've had my eyes shut for the past few years - I didn't know anyone had introduced ethanol into fuel for general sale. Boy, have I got some catching up to do.

MKG wrote:Just shows I've had my eyes shut for the past few years - I didn't know anyone had introduced ethanol into fuel for general sale. Boy, have I got some catching up to do.

You've been able to buy it in Sweden for quite a while, though it is sold seperate from the normal petrol - you can get it in an 85% Ethanol / 15% gasoline mix. Some lunatics distil it and drink it.
They're on about not increasing the blend above 5% in all forecourt sold petrol in this article.

Supermarket fuels (petrol) in the UK routinely have up to 6% ethanol added to them to stretch refined oils out.
remember the contaminated fuel at T***o's last year, it was blamed on water contamination in the ethanol until the truth about the silicon came out.

Brod wrote:Supermarket fuels (petrol) in the UK routinely have up to 6% ethanol added to them to stretch refined oils out.
remember the contaminated fuel at T***o's last year, it was blamed on water contamination in the ethanol until the truth about the silicon came out.

It's not just that - ethanol is an octane enhancer, and far safer than either lead-based additives or ethers like MTBE, both of which have been discontinued.

There are other ways to boost octane in gasoline, but ethanol is (relatively) cheap.

Turning food into motor fuel is obscene. Why not use it as human fuel and walk a little instead, say I! But people think I am odd.

WE have access to a 10% ethanol blend.

Nev

They make a lot of fuel from sugar cane in Brazil and sell it at the pumps. Guess it is ethanol.

It only seems like yesterday that us Greenies were extolling the virtues of Bio-fuels over fossil fuels. I just can't keep up...

The EU seems to be waking up to the problem...

Pressure Grows on EU to Abandon Biofuels

By Charles Hawley

With food prices skyrocketing and faith in biofuels plummeting, many are demanding that the European Union back away from its commitment to eco-fuel. Even the EU's own scientists are skeptical.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/eur ... 09,00.html

Gytrash wrote:It only seems like yesterday that us Greenies were extolling the virtues of Bio-fuels over fossil fuels. I just can't keep up...

Yes, things have certainly changed.
When i started running my car on veg oil 5 years ago, a litre of new oil was about 42 pence in asda.

I went in there the other day and noticed it was now 99p /litre.

Thats in less than 5 years.
I think I'm going to move to scrounging old oil and filtering it from now on.
Luckily I only do about 3000 miles per year.

gug wrote:

Gytrash wrote:It only seems like yesterday that us Greenies were extolling the virtues of Bio-fuels over fossil fuels. I just can't keep up...

Yes, things have certainly changed.
When i started running my car on veg oil 5 years ago, a litre of new oil was about 42 pence in asda.

I went in there the other day and noticed it was now 99p /litre.

Thats in less than 5 years.

Heh! Aye, it was all 'bio-diesel - the fuel of the future' only a few years back.

I think I'm going to move to scrounging old oil and filtering it from now on.

From what I've heard (which may be apocryphal) the places that used to pay someone to take away and dispose of their old cooking oil have realised that there's a market in this.
So now they sell it.

Luckily I only do about 3000 miles per year.

I'm sure I read somewhere that in your case it'd be cheaper for you to use a taxi?!


Cheers
Dave

Gytrash wrote: From what I've heard (which may be apocryphal) the places that used to pay someone to take away and dispose of their old cooking oil have realised that there's a market in this.
So now they sell it.

I believe the going rate is 20p/ltr used cooking oil at the moment.

Biodiesel did seem to make sense when we had all that surplus production - you could grow oilseed rape on set-aside land in Germany, for example.