Bloody Swizz!!!

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Which all seems very well and good until you read the quote from Argent's website...

"When blended with mineral diesel at 5%, as Argent intends, it falls under the normal mineral diesel standard as well as complying with the mineral diesel standard (BS EN 590)."

So when you read between the lines you get...

"Stick in 5% of stuff from the ground and it is 'officially' just normal diesel and you can charge the same price as normal stuff - or more because people will want to do their bit for the environment..."

Surely the whole point is that this stuff (when they are up and running) is piss-cheap to produce and can therefore be flogged off way below the price of normal diesel thus creating more demand for biofuel and less for non-renewables?

Surely the point is to flog it at production cost + sensible margin + road fuel duty = nice and cheap?

Am I being really stupid here? Are Argent totally "in bed with" the government and the oil companies? Is this just another rip-off for the vaguely environmentally conscious?

CAS

Reply to
CAS
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CAS ( snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I'm not sure the economics work quite like that...

The BBC's talking about "up to 25,000 tonnes" of biodiesel. Let's assume

1 litre = 1 kg, like water. (I've never weighed diesel, and I don't intend to start now.) - so 25 million litres.

Argent's website's talking about "45,000 tonnes" and "up to 50 million litres"

Diesel's currently (rough numbers) 85p/litre, which is 72.5p/litre before VAT, with 48.5p/litre of that being road fuel duty.

So, after Gordon's chunk, that leaves 24p/litre for the actual fuel. From that, you've got to take the retailer's margin, the distribution costs, marketing (which'll be high for this) etc etc etc.

Let's make another wild assumption, and assume that leaves us with

15p/litre. Even at Argent's higher production figure, that's only £7.5million turnover per year. That's not a heck of a lot. Not when the plant itself is quoted at costing £15 million, with half of that going to Mowlem just to build it. If you go with the Beeb's lower estimates of the output, the sums *really* don't add up.

Biodiesel's "only" 20p/litre duty, but I read the "falls under the mineral diesel standard" as meaning they have to pay full dead-dino- duty. Still, better that than vast PR and liability insurance disasters if higher percentages turn out not to lubricate expensive common rail diesel pumps properly...

Reply to
Adrian

This little gem kind of backs up that assumption...

"Biodiesel can be easily blended with mineral diesel with no need to alter either the logistics of sale".

and this one...

"When biodiesel is blended with mineral diesel at 5%, as Argent intends, it falls under the normal mineral diesel standard (BS EN 590) and thus "becomes" mineral diesel"

The thing that I don't get is this (and I'm perhaps quoting hearsay in places so feel free to correct)...

The whole point of this is to make biodiesel a viable alternative to "dead-dino-diesel" and in fact make it a preferable alternative to "dead-dino-diesel". That isn't going to happen if it is the same price! It will be seen as well "I can get *proper* diesel 200 yards down the road for the same price I'll go there instead"!!!

I think I'm just really pissed off that this is clearly another scam to play on the conscience of those who want to do their bit.

Hang on!!! It gets worse! Their marketting is all written to mislead the punter (either that or I'm having a really thick day...) into thinking that you get 95% chip-fat, where you actually only get 5%!!!

So the point of this stuff is...???

Ah, yes... The Sunday Herald headline, sadly, says it all - "Argent Energy turning chip fat into gold".

CAS

Reply to
CAS

CAS ( snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

5% of an absolute shitload is still a helluva lot. Up to 50 million litres. In Scotland alone. Per year. Apparently.

Each barrel's 42 US gallons or 159 litres, so if you ignore any refining losses and burn-off of unwanted products, you're saving 315,000 barrels of crude per year, just in Scotland.

Reply to
Adrian

I'm not disputing the fact that it has to be better for (well, OK...) everyone...

...I just hate it when people don't just go "Well this is what it is, this is what it's going to do for you, for HMG, for the environment and by the way we are making a f**king killing..."

I'd be much more open to the idea than I am with the "multi-faceted" attitude they are current;y displaying!

Oh and the percentages - I want the opportunity to make a 100% (or failing that a 95%) commitment to an environmental issue - only being given the option of being 5% greener sounds like a total waste of time to me. You either do it or you don't - people won't go out of their way to get a 5% greener fill, I know I would for a 95% greener one! And now wouldn't be a good time to mention my choice of vehicle, Adrian, I'm on my high-horse and intend to stay on it until at least tomorrow when no doubt something else will p*ss me off...

;-)

CAS

Reply to
CAS

CAS ( snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Trouble is that modern diseasel injection pumps are complex things, and there's stories of them not liking biodiesel for lubrication reasons - and That Can Get Expensive.

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Reply to
Adrian

Message i.d.:, by author CAS aka inspired me,

It isn't. Calculate the amount of diesel that is currently used. Calculate that amount of diesel into area required to produce bio diesel. You will see a tiny problem. The world isn't big enough to produce bio-diesel. If it were, the world wouldn't have enough fertilizer to produce bio diesel. It there were, there would not be any fertilizer left to produce something basic like lettuce or beans.

One day we'll have to choose. Drive or eat.

Reply to
2Rowdy
[Biodiesel]
24p/litre is the cost of the cheapest vegetable oils sold for cooking. Rapeseed and grapeseed oils can be had for those sort of prices. It's a viable fuel *if* the Chancellor can get his thumb out of his butt. I suspect that the truth is that the government (any government) really doesn't want to see alternatives to petroleum being used on a large scale.

The main headache is that world vegetable oil production is at present about 0.5% that of petroleum production. There's some hope for improvement though, Malaysia produces about a third to a half of the world's vegetable oil as palm oil. With that sort of productivity it sounds entirely possible that tropical countries could supply the world's energy needs. It may be a way of bringing aid to places that need it.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Ok, comprimise, don't grow lettuce...

Reply to
Tim S Kemp

Not really. There isn't any point in growing beans when you can't transport them to / from the supermarkets.

Basically, some form of fuel will always be needed so fixating on one sort is missing the way the world works.

Reply to
Questions

Can't you eat them unless they've been in a supermarket, then?

Reply to
Ian Dalziel

Message i.d.:, by author snipped-for-privacy@quickwatchsales.com aka inspired me,

I expected some smelly bean jokes.

I guess hydrogen hold the future. Just need a place where to make it. Solar panels can not supply enough energy unless they cover the whole earth. I'm hoping for nuclear fusion.

Reply to
2Rowdy

I can't eat them if I'm in London and the beans are in Canada, no. Nor would I walk from Central London to a farm shop in Lincolnshire because there's no way to transport them to me and the rest of the borough. Nor is anyone going to set up a bean farm in Carnaby Street capable of feeding Camden. Etc.

But this is all irrelevant because there'll just be some other fuel along to replace petrol in due course. I guess hydrogen. Similar, the energy needs of society will be met in some other way instead of fossil fuel, I guess nuclear fusion. Time will tell what it actually is.

While there will be changes, we aren't going to return to a medieval feudal society so the car is here to stay in some form or another, and it won't be back to the horse and cart.

Reply to
Questions

There was bio-diesel mentioned recently ;)

That's my guess, but of course the actual technology often turns out to be something unexpected in practice. We'll see.

There's no reason why the surface area of earth needs to be a limit for solar power, although I think the quantity of energy available is absolutely enormous if the solar panel technology is to be improved significantly.

The other method is just to get hydrogen from space, there's virtually unlimited amounts up there, although it would alter the balance of things on earth a bit (dunno if that matters).

Reply to
Questions

That's going to mean there won't be any point in being in London, rather than no point in growing beans, won't it?

Reply to
Ian Dalziel

Well I suppose one of the solutions is to move some of the people out of london into the sticks and let about 95% of the national population starve.

The other is to keep using cars and trucks and things but you know, maybe change what fuel they use, gradually.

I suspect I know which will be adopted.

Reply to
Questions

Message i.d.:, by author snipped-for-privacy@quickwatchsales.com aka inspired me,

Yep. But filling up the petrol tank is beginning to bother me. The price for petrol is getting a bit extreme. In The Netherlands the price in now e1.35 per liter.

Not sure. There are a few plants in the US with high efficiency, the concentrating mirrors. Nonetheless the output is relatively low, the area they use is huge.

Lots of H2O but less and less O2. I guess we'll drown.

Reply to
2Rowdy

yeah....we're all going to die....

Reply to
Rob Beech

Easier still, do it on the Moon or Mars, etc, drop the (excess) water into the dry, lifeless environment up there and export just the energy to earth.

Store the energy as, say, highly refined fuels that are made using this external energy and atmospheric ingredients and when you burn the fuel you release these ingredients back into the atmosphere. Totally sustainable, and has the result of terraforming your place of industry e.g. by creating a biosphere on Mars.

This is all overkill at the moment, of course. With our present energy use I think we could just burn space hydrogen and the reduction in global warming would somewhat balance the extra water produced, which would be rather irrelevant anyway until things were greatly scaled up.

Reply to
Questions

in news: snipped-for-privacy@nntp.aacit.net, "2Rowdy" slurred :

Hydrogen isn't a fuel source, it's a storage mechanism, at least the way we have to get it. It's also incredibly messy stuff to keep and transport - to the point which almost makes it unviable.

In any case you still need a power source. Fusion is the way to go - breakeven has been demonstrated, but Japan/America are still arguing with everyone else about where to put the next big accelerator. Looks like it's gonna be at least 2050 before we make any more significant steps, which frankly sucks.

Reply to
Albert T Cone

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