E10 petrol, UK still far behind.

[AndyP]

E10 has been available here for at least 7 years, probably longer. It is about 4 or 5 cents cheaper per litre than 95 unleaded and suitable for all fuel injected petrol engine cars, ie most cars made after the mid to late 90s. I cant understand why the UK govt has dragged it’s heels over this as the percentage of new cars on the road in the UK is no different to that in France.

 

[9fingers]

Based on a few minutes googling as I had not heard of e10 fuel, it seems that advantages are not at all clear with some downsides making it less obvious to switch than you feel Andy.

Needs more detailed evaluation.

Bob

 

[AndyP]

Forgot this link about the Uk's only biofuel plant being mothballed http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42226808

Bob, I'll accept the reviews that state fuel consumption maybe increased which is why a price drop compared to unleaded is necessary to convince the public to use it. CO2 emissions have also been questioned but at least the 10% which is ethanol is renewable and it's manufacture less damaging to the environment.

The cynic in me suggests that the European govts that have embraced E10 have been conned, but the car drivers in Europe are no less educated and have access to all the same data as the UK yet sales of E10 I see are increasing.

 

[Mike G]

Greenie here..... but biofuels are just a bad idea as currently construed. We have enough land given over to growing intensive crops for food already. We either take some of that food-growing land for growing fuel, or we take some more land from the "wilderness". Both are bad idea in my view.

 

[9fingers]

The last time I bought a petrol car was in 1995 so I've not really looked at what is happening with petrol.

As i said a very quick look this morning seemed to indicate that e10 was a grey area with several second order intangibles to try and evaluate.

Eg Ok it might give less mpg and that is compensated for in the price but it possibly puts out more CO2 per mile. But some CO2 is absorbed in making the ethanol but the net result compared to e5 is not obvious or maybe not even calculable?
Drop down another level, and we have potential food being grown to make fuel and yet vast areas of malnutrition.

It is rather like the diesel emission standards that were being tightened when I bought my diesel Cmax.
The diesel particulate filters burn extra fuel in order to regenerate the filter thus dropping the MPG.
My nearly new skoda has an even more tightly controlled filter and when that goes into regeneration mode the mpg drops from the near 60 that I normally see to below 30 for a few miles.
Just too difficult to work out the overall affect. Less particulates - good, more CO2 -bad but no numbers to work with.

All too hard

Bob

 

[AndyP]

I am neither a die hard tree hugger nor a petrol head. Neither Brexiteer nor a die hard European and I agree the numbers are difficult to crunch.
I think that I am more surprised that given the same available information some countries have adopted and some not. This is not just a European fad either.

 

[Rod]

I switched to diesel years ago when petrol rationing was about to be introduced - the company I worked for had its own supply of diesel which was made available for staff.
My car is in the garage having been recalled for an exhaust gas reprogramming and I’ve been loaned a petrol one - forgotten how much quieter they are.
There have been periods when folks have been turning to chip shop oils and LPG but that seems to have gone out of fashion.

Rod

 

[Deejay]

Afternoon all

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/cla ... bikes.html

Probably explains why I have to replace the pump diaphragm in my Briggs mower engine every year, even if I drain it down for the winter.

Cheers

Dave

 

[Woodster]

Greenie here..... but biofuels are just a bad idea as currently construed. We have enough land given over to growing intensive crops for food already. We either take some of that food-growing land for growing fuel, or we take some more land from the "wilderness". Both are bad idea in my view.

Yes, agreed.

 

[Rod]

What do the old classic cars run on - is unleaded still available for them?

Rod

 

[9fingers]

What do the old classic cars run on - is unleaded still available for them?

Rod

A friend who runs/restores/collects 2CVs uses an additive with standard unleaded (E5)

Full lead petrol is no longer available AFAIK

Bob