AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

Et 1,

15th December 1994
Page 30
Page 31
Page 30, 15th December 1994 — Et 1,
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

ROADTEST

won't be caught out emitting clouds of white smoke when starting from cold.

Biodiesel is slightly denser than derv: this would amount to an additional 12kg on our vehicle's 300 litre tank, so any detrimental effect on kerbweight is minimal. For the record our bulker-bodied FL10 tared in at 12.6 tonnes with blower and full kit.

ON THE ROAD Volvo spends a lot of time and money matching the transmission to the engine. If the engine then loses up to 10% of its power through using a lower calorific fuel, there is a degree of mis-match.

So running on biodiesel the gearing always felt odd-a little too high or a little too low. Having switched to dery this disappeared, the truck felt more at ease and there was a cog for every occasion.

Filling up with biodiesel is an experience in itself. Firstly the smell is different, much as you might expect, but the real surprise is that it doesn't foam. A boon for most drivers, but it makes filling up for tank-top to tank-top fuel figures very difficult. Once it is in the tank the lack of bubbles makes it difficult to determine where the level is.

For the record the Dalgety FL10 gave its expected comfortable ride, albeit with marked body roll due to the high bulker body Steering was positive and very light. In fact, apart from the engine's performance, this was a typical FLAGright down to the ineffective exhaust brake.

CAB COMFORT

You would think that running on biodiesel wouldn't make any difference inside the cab. Wrong. While it may provoke a few more gear changes, it also lowers the noise levels. In fact, on everything but the motorway the noise level is around 3dbA lower-a significant decrease representing a halving of the energy levels.

However, while it might be quieter, there's still the familiar vibration and diesel clatter on idle-unlike trucks powered by compressed natural gas (CNG).

And not only does the exhaust smell more pleasant (although not quite of roses), bio-covered gloves are also far more preferable to their derv-doused counterparts. And when you get it on your shoes, it biodegrades in less than a month...

SUMMARY

For all those hauliers with diesel in their veins we have some good news. You can still run on biodiesel.

There's little to distinguish a biodiesel truck from its derv-powered equivalent. There are some penalties in terms of slightly reduced power and economy but set against the lack of modification needed to run on bio fuel it's a more than acceptable price to pay for being greener. If we had longer with the vehicle we could have adjusted its fuelling to regain the correct power rating and restored the journey and hill climb times (traffic permitting).

As we have so often seen with test vehicles turning up the wick can give dividends in the fuel stakes: it is almost certain to do so with bio-diesel as it also would have corrected the gearing imbalance. Ironically, the next generation of electronically controlled engines may even be capable of automatically correcting the fueling levels when a power drop is detected so a change of fuel wouldn't be noticed by the man behind the wheel.

But what of the fuel consumption? Biodiesel is a renewable fuel, dery is not. Which is better to use-12% more whisky from your only bottle or 12% more water from the tap to dilute it? In other words by 2010 when oil reserves will have shrunk we can always grow more rape.

All this may well be academic. From Hanuary the UK Government will impose the same excise duty (30.8p/lit) on biodiesel as it does on derv. Although for a Government which has publicly pledged itself to cutting pollution it is noticeably reluctant to follow the French and German Governments by granting tax exemption for a pilot plant to produce biodiesel.

This move could well place a financial penalty on biodiesel and the initiative will pass to other countries. The UK would suffer, so would the environment and natural (finite) resources would be used up at a higher rate than necessary.

Now that really would be the rape of common sense!

LI by Colin Sowm an

Tags

Organisations: UK Government
People: Colin Sowm

comments powered by Disqus