bio fuel

I noticed bio fuel mentioned in a post, what is it? can all diesel landy's run on it? do you have to convert the engine?

do a search on "bio fuel" - enuf reading matter there fur ya

there has been loads of Fred's about this the simple answer is: vegetable oil, yes, no.

ask slob about animal oils

Wot for - he already said he dint know nuffink about amnial oil - only fat and that was verging on slander

There are alot different biofuels. The most common is biodiesel which is a mix of 70% diesel fuel and 30% waste veg. oil. Any diesel vehicle can run on biodiesel without any mods. Another is straight veg oil, which will run in diesels, but the vehicle needs some slight mods. You need a second tank for the oil, a second lift pump and fuel filter, and a switch to control both pumps. Veg oil combusts as a higher temp than diesel so you start the rig on diesel until it gets up to opperational temp, then you switch it to the veg oil pump. A diesel can run on straight veg oil without mods also, as that is what Rudolph Diesel built it for, however it involves removing all water from the oil and the glycerin, and then adjusting the PH. That method is too much Chemistry for me to get a grip on. There is a biofuel for gas (petro) engines also; here in the states we call it "Shine", but it is illegal to make, and illegal to drink

If anybody decideds to try veg oil make sure you filter it a few times before putting it in your tank.

Just as an aside, it is Illegal to put vegetable oil in your fuel tank unless you have paid Gordon his excise duty on it at the full rate (about 70p a litre at the moment). Processed Veg oil which has been cracked down to BioDiesel (similar chemistry to petro Diesel, but not dug up from the ground) runs as a direct prelacement for normal Diesel, or can be mixed with it, and it has lower particulate emmissions. This is in a much lower tax band (20p lower than PetroDiesel).

Proper BioD lubricates the engine better than normal D, thats why ULS Diesel is normally blended with 5% Bio at the refinery as the low sulphur can damage valve trains.

HTH (been doing my research for a "slight" career change)

most diesel you buy these days inthe UK has 5% biodiesel in it known as B5 and has the same spec as regualr diesel EN590 and diesels will be ok. The most common for of biodiesel is rapeseed methyl ester, cause we can grow it and its properties are pretty good in comparison to other options .In other parts of the world you willfind more palm.Soya is also used.

B100 is available but from a limited number of places.If you buy it froma pump it should be ok to use.

You can jsut pour in a few litres of value new cooking oil into your tank and it will run fine.But you are suppose to delcare it and pay the duty on it


In petrol its good old ethanol at 5%. This has been adopted very rapdly across the UK thanks to subsidy on the duty. But now in much of Europe the ethanol rather than being blended direct into petrol is being converted into ETBE

You can get 85% ethanol blend (E85) but to use it you need to make sure all the bits of rubber in the fuel system are compatible

I don't know what new Veg oil costs there, but here if its not used and free you would not beable to afford to burn it in your car. I can buy a gallon of diesel for 2.57 (US dollar) corn or soy oil would run around 19.00 a gallon. Unfortunately we don't have a biodiesel or ethynol option at the pumps yet. If you run bio here you have to make it yourself.

Heare a gallon of diesel is £3.87 which is $7.57

and a gallon of veg oil is £2.02 which is $3.95

ouch... and we think our fuel prices are high.... I have heard that rovers built for the UK get better fuel milage than the ones that are built for export. What kind of milage would a 97 (gas/petrol) discovery get there? My friend gets 8 mpg in town and about 10 on the highway.

Over here at 8 mpg you'd be better off just buying BP or Exxon, it ost the same as driving a few miles

The big difference here is we get hammered with tax on fuel. The actual cost of fuel is very slightly higher but the tax is MASSIVE in comparison to the US

As a result fuel economy is a big influence here so engines are tuned differently or just completely different (ie smaller)

greenjeepster said:

ouch... and we think our fuel prices are high.... I have heard that rovers built for the UK get better fuel milage than the ones that are built for export. What kind of milage would a 97 (gas/petrol) discovery get there? My friend gets 8 mpg in town and about 10 on the highway.

Click to expand...

The difference is that the fuel over here is more refined, i.e. gives a bigger bang, so you dint need as mutch.

not strickly true. The US is very much geared up for production of gasoline and as such has very complex coking refineries.

In Europe we are changing from gasoline focus to diesel as the car population is changing over to diesel so our refineries are now re-gearing to produce a greater proportion ULS diesel fromthe barrel. So refining here tends towards cracking units to help increase diesel production. The surlus gasoline we produce is often exported to the US

The calorific value of diesel in US and Europe is pretty much the same so there isnt a great difference in fuel economy. US has now also gone low suphur so also requires the same level of processing. The difference lies in cetane number where it is higher in European specification

One good thing about reprocessed veg oil is that it generally has a higher calorific value than regular diesel so fuel economy/power is increased if you use it. Biggest problem with it is the variability due to multiple sources and while sometimes it can be really nice and clean other times it can cause fouling of injectors at a rapid rate. So if using diesel biofuel I would recommend using a shot of Millers diesel power plus jsut to make sure you get a good level of detergents to keep injectors clean