Wednesday 19 May 2010

Bio diesel

Just put half a tank of biodiesel made from used chip fat from Apple Fuels of Glasgow in the tank of my Mercedes C220 CDI. Running fine so far, will report back here.

Update 25/5/10.
No problems so far, the weather has been pretty warm so no viscosity issues, it is still returning similar mpg (between 40 and 50mpg) etc. I'm aiming to fill up again at the weekend to a mix of around 70/30 rather than the 50/50 I've been using so far and will get the fuel filter changed once I've used that tankfull.

Update 3/6/10
Running fine on a mix of about 80% Biodiesel from waste vegetable oil (WVO) from Apple in Glasgow and 20% regular mineral - running fine after couple of hundred miles. I'm so impressed I've created a TomTom satnav POI file with all the UK biodiesel outlets listed at http://www.biodieselfillingstations.co.uk/ .

You can download the POI file here.

Update 10/8/10
Aside from 1,500 miles in France over the summer when it was mineral diesel all the way (cheaper than here 'though), I've been running biodiesel in some concentration all summer. Apple in Glasgow is consistently the cheapest at 92p / litre. One place in Liverpool was charging 110p which felt a lot till I noticed the mineral diesel was around 120p locally. I had the fuel filter replaced after a few hundred miles on bio and whilst I've wondered whether maybe I changed it before all the crap had been cleaned through I've had no running difficulties at all so far.

Quite a few of the suppliers listed at Biodiesel Filling Stations seem to have stopped selling it so I've been phoning ahead when planning long journeys.

Update 8/9/10
Was up in Aberdeen last week taking number one daughter to university open day and filled up with bio at Business Biofuels 94.9p for cash, more for payment by card. A very professional outfit, talked me through the possible pitfalls (blocked filters, warranty invalidation) and handed out a useful fact sheet, will certainly use them again when I'm in the area. I'll be filling up at Apple in Glasgow on Saturday and have bought some 20 litre containers on eBay which I'll fill also. Merc is running fine on 100% bio, no problems at all.

Update 12/3/12
Well it's been a long time since I updated on this. Still using biodiesel without any problems. The fuel filter did need changing before xmas but excellent local mechanic Chris Cockburn sorted it out in minutes. Over the winter I've been using a maximum of about 25% bio to avoid waxing, when warmer seems to run ok on 100% bio although I tend to run a half a tank of dino-diesel through every few weeks. The economy is great as shown in the photo - 64 mpg on the first hour of a recent journey from Stansted northwards.

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