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“The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today but such oils may become in course of time as important as petroleum.”
- Dr. Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the diesel engine, 1913.
Dr. Diesel (what a great name) demonstrated his engine at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 using peanut oil as fuel. The notion of running a diesel engine on vegetable oil is clearly nothing new, but recent developments in technology have made it more accessible to more people. Much development and production of what we now call Biodiesel takes place outside the UK, and information that is UK-centric is sketchy at best.
BiodieselNow is an attempt to centralise UK-specific information about the Biodiesel and Ethanol market. This is a personal project, not sponsored by any company, organisation or business with an interest in portraying Biodiesel in any particular way – positive or negative.
I first read about biodiesel in a newspaper mid 2008 – so I am by no means an expert. However, I was intrigued about the possibilities of cheaper fuel, reduced reliance on fossil fuels and reduced environmental impact. I guessed that others, like me, might need some help understanding the ins and outs of biodiesel and set about building BiodieselNow to hopefully do just that.
So I started out with four main kinds of questions about biodiesel:
1. Why all the different types of Biodiesel?
Is biodiesel a type of biofuel or vice verse? What is ethanol and how does it relate to bioethanol and biodiesel? Are ecodiesel and green diesel something different from all of these and how, if at all, do they resemble SVO or WVO (whatever they are)? Is biomass the generic term for everything or does it refer to a specific type of fuel?
2. What are the advantages of Biodiesel?
How much does biodiesel cost in the UK? Will my car run on biodiesel – and if so, what kind of performance and economy can I expect? How much will I save by switching to bio diesel and will my car need some kind of a conversion?
3. What are the problems associated with Biodiesel?
Is biodiesel really environmentally friendly? Is biodiesel really a sustainable source of fuel? What negative impact might biodiesel production have on related industries and economies? Will using biodiesel damage my car and invalidate the manufacturer warranty?
4. Where can I get Biodiesel in the UK?
Are there biodiesel filling stations in the UK? Can I make my own biodiesel and sell it for a profit? Where can I find cheap sources of waste vegetable oil in the UK? What exactly is a grease car and do I really want one?
 The story so far: I kicked off my research by pulling together all the news feeds I could find about biodiesel and ethanol developments to create a single page of the Latest Biodiesel News.
The Biodiesel Resources page is the start of my research into the sites that exist already and are worthy of note. If you want me to consider adding another site to the list, just add a comment at the end of the resources page.
Do I use Biodiesel? No, not yet. I do drive a diesel car (an elderly but still superb Toyota Yaris), but this site is a work in progress and I’ve yet to draw my own conclusions about whether I want to support biofuels in general, and biodiesel in particular.
As soon as I started researching biodiesel, I realised that I couldn’t really understand it in context without considering other alternative, green and renewable fuel sources.
I haven’t got very far with each of the sites listed at the end of the page (except for aggregating specific news feeds for each of them), but I aim to evaluate bio diesel in comparison to each of these power and energy sources, not just in isolation.
Have Your Say
i have been making my own bio diesel for about 6 months and running a p reg laguna on it had no problems doing this although in the winter you do have to think about it gelling but the easiest way round this is to run your car 50/50 with normal diesel.now its warmer i run it on my home made biodiesel neat no smoke no lack of performance just great savings when you first put it in your car it will block your fuel filter due to taking all your old diesel gunk and cleaning yor pipes this happens after about 500miles
Comment by David — April 10, 2009 : 12:45 am
I hope you find BiodieselNow useful. If you do, please share it with your friends and link back if you can:
<a href="http://www.biodieselnow.co.uk" alt="BiodieselNow - All about UK Biodiesel">UK Biodiesel information at BiodieselNow.co.uk</a>
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