Diesel engines can thrive on vegetable oil
Firstly, a wide range of diesel engines can be converted to run on vegetable oil.
Anyone driving a diesel-engined vehicle could get it checked out, to see if it is technically possible to have it converted.
Conversions are simply a question of adding extra fuel heating mechanisms and adjusting the fuel injectors.
Vegetable oil used in unconverted engines could clog the lines, choke the injectors and cause serious damage to the engine.
Secondly, arrangements can be made with the Revenue Commissioners about excise duty and VAT payments.
There is some precedent in this regard.
In addition to the current trials being carried out by Cork City Council, there are a number of other individuals and organisations around the country using either virgin vegetable oil or waste cooking oil as a diesel substitute.
In fact, up until recently, a Cork-based company was converting vehicle engines to run on waste cooking oil.
Waste cooking oil is obviously a much cheaper option than virgin oil since many restaurants will happily give it away. All that has to be paid is the excise duty.
The only difficulty is that the fuel requires extra filtration and a dual tank system because the more impure fuel must be flushed out of the fuel lines with diesel at the end of journey.
In an organisation like the city council this would involve more driver training and potential for maintenance problems.
The conversion kit which the city council has chosen is a single tank system, designed to run on 100% vegetable oil from start to end of journey and the manufacturers, Elsbett, have been using and installing such engines since the 1970s.
The vegetable oil suppliers Eilish Oils have also been successfully using Elsbett-engined, vegetable oil-powered vans for a number of years.
The vegetable oil comes from Irish-grown rapeseed.
In addition, a Dublin-based company called Sure Engineering has recently launched a special ethanol-vegetable oil fuel blend suitable for use in unconverted engines.
In short, biofuels can be used by anyone with a suitable diesel-engined vehicle.
For further information, consult a report on ‘Renewable Oils as Fuels’ in the traffic division section of the Cork City Council website: www.corkcity.ie/miracles.
Alternatively, feel free to call into me at either the address below or at the traffic division offices in Albert Quay House, Cork, where the Miracles project team are based.
Sarah Danaher,
Cork City Energy Agency,
The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion,
Fitzgerald Park,
Cork.
