It seems that Tesco are joint partners in a £10 million venture to process Biodiesel from rapeseed in a new plant at Immingham on Humberside to open late 2006.
Hopefully this may help to bring the price down and be less dependent on the Middle East.
www.theengineer.co.uk/liChannelID/2/Articles/29024...m
|
|
Good news for farmers and motorists, but don't tell Gordon that it will be cheaper, you know what he will do.
|
Seems that Tesco are not alone in Biodiesel production capacity :-
www.topgear.com/content/news/stories/1560/
|
|
|
|
Biodiesel is a pointless technology - it exists only because of
a) tax
b) well-meaning but dense Guardian-reading types who can't do arithmetic
It's *way* more expensive to produce than ordinary diesel. This would still be so with oil at $100/barrel (vs ~$50 today).
To convert a significant portion of our transport infrastructure to biodiesel (at hideous capital cost) would have a huge impact on food production (burning biodiesel effectively means setting fire to food).
I'm far from convinced that giving it a tax break (thus diverting attention and resources away from economically viable technologies) is wise.
|
What a shame biodiesel is going to end up in the hands of the same old globalist suspects.
I disagree with you stowger. Biodisel can be made from waste oils, algae, rendered animals etc... It costs 30p a litre to produce and market, as opposed to 20p a litre for diesel, now as 750% of the cost of diesel is what Tony Blair tells us is Carbon Tax, then people should get a 10p a litre rebate of that 30p for using it.
What's more, look how much these middle-eastern wars are costing the UK in deaths and grotesque amounts of money, plus lowering our standard of living, this may be paid for through tax such as fuel duty, but the tax wouldn't exist if the situations for it to be wasted on didn't. ie the cost of middle-eastern wars for oil should be classed as part of the price of the fuel.
|
> I disagree with you stowger. Biodisel can be made from waste
> oils, algae, rendered animals etc... It costs 30p a litre to
Those things are not going to power our transport system!
The UK consumes 1.5-2 *million* barrels of oil per day. The idea that waste oils and rendered animals could ever be of significance is laughable.
Like wind power, they could help, a tiny bit, but there just isn't enough there to provide the energy we need.
> be wasted on didn't. ie the cost of middle-eastern wars for oil
> should be classed as part of the price of the fuel.
I dispute that the current war is necessary to ensure a supply
of oil. I suspect this matter is off-topic.
|
|
|
|
|
According to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel, using algae farms to produce biodiesel is estimated to yield 10000-20000 US gal/acre, which is about 100x that of rapeseed. Some US academics have looked into the large scale production of biodiesel from algae - they have written about it here: www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html
|
|
|
|
Hopefully this may help to bring the price down and be less dependent on the Middle East.
It migh reduce our dependancy, but think about. Currently for every 80-something pence we pay for a litre of fuel, some 60 pence goes to the treasury? Remember LPG? Biodiesel will go the same way - just as soon as 'they' figure out they can make money from it, they'll whack on and ratchet up the fuel levy so we'll be looking for yet another source of fuel.
Good idea, till the politicians get hold of it.
|
|
If I remember correctly I paid 1p per litre extra at Tesco recently, for something that was 5% biodiesel. At that rate 100% biodiesel will cost 20p extra or am I missing something?
|
I am not a producer of biodiesel, but I am a user of the fuel and have been for coming up to four years. The most meaningful estimate I have come across is that biodiesel can replace no more than 10%-15% of UK transport fuel usage in terms of what can be produced from waste cooking oil, growing rape as a fuel crop, etc. This does not include any potential for producing biodiesel from algae, which I believe could make a substantial difference. Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to think that it can be a magic bullet solution to all our energy and environmental problems. In spite of this, I still think that half a loaf is better than no bread.
Of course, one option is that the waste cooking oil from the tens of thousands of canteens, restaurants, chip shops, domestic deep fat fryers etc. could be chucked down the drains to clog our water systems, or be disposed of at high cost as "toxic waste" (it can't be put into cattle feed any more, as this sort of thing led to BSE). I think it's eminently sensible to turn it into a fuel which can be used normally, in engines that are currently widely available, without having to install a whole new infrastructure that fuels such as hydrogen may require.
I pay 75p a litre for biodiesel, although I understand that I am probably a little fortunate in that regard. However, with the price of derv rising relentlessly, biodiesel is usually competitive nowadays, rather than being more expensive. Don't know if anyone picked up on the recent rise in oil prices due to fears of a "spike" rise, ie speculation that prices will go up to $100 a barrel. At least the cost of biodiesel isn't tied to the price of crude or the whims of OPEC. In terms of tax, biodiesel in the UK is already one of the most highly taxed fuels in the world, even allowing for the breadcrumbs of a derogation that came in a couple of years ago.
As for the cost of producing conventional mineral fuel versus biodiesel, I've reflected before now on how cheap biodiesel could be if all the money spent on subventions to crude oil production (including the cost of military adventures) were to be spent on investing in a domestic energy industry which could reduce our reliance on energy imports - especially the aforementioned potential for production from algae. I wonder whether it would be feasible to operate an algae production facility in a multi-storey installation - it wouldn't be restricted to a maximum yield per hectare in the way that conventional fuel crops are.
--
andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ...
|
|
|
|
>>Currently for every 80-something pence we pay for a litre of fuel, some 60 pence goes to the treasury?>>
Actually the figure is higher - a minimum of 80 per cent of the cost of petrol is made up of tax and VAT.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
|
|
|
|
