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INTERVIEW - French Drivers Illegally Use Vegoil as Fuel |
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Written by Cameron Little
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Saturday, 01 October 2005 |
from Planet Ark & Reuters News Service...
INTERVIEW - French Drivers
Illegally Use Vegoil as
Fuel
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FRANCE:
September 29, 2005
PARIS - Some French motorists are dodging the
near-record price of mineral
oil by illegally using pure vegetable oil as a
substitute for diesel, a
French sunflower oil distributor
said.
"At least 2,000 to 3,000 French motorists are using between 50
and 100
percent pure vegetable oil in their tanks right now," said Alain
Juste,
manager of Valenergol, a southwest-based sunflower oil distribution
company.
Despite the European Union pushing for the development of pure
vegetable
oils as an alternative to traditional fuels, they have never been
legally
permitted in France. Motorists who use them risk being
fined.
But in Germany, trucking companies are increasingly using normal
rapeseed
oil as a cheap fuel alternative to higher-grade rapeseed
biodiesel.
Juste, who is also president of the Pure Vegetable Oil
Institute, said he
based his estimate on the 700 small-sized crushing
machines currently in
use. "Most of the oil production goes in car tanks," he
said.
Juste, who has been producing vegetable oil for motorists for the
last 12
years, says the interest in pure vegoil has multiplied by 30 in the
last
three to four months, when pump prices started to take
off.
"Vegetable oil, which is either made from rapeseed or sunflower,
costs
0.70-0.80 euros per litre against 1.18 euros ($1.42) per litre for
diesel,"
he added.
"Many motorists are also going straight to
supermarkets to buy vegetable oil
destined for human consumption," he
said.
However, usage of human consumption oil should not exceed 50
percent in
one's tank and should be filtered, Juste warned.
"Over that
limit you could have injection problems in your motor," he
said.
TECHNICAL HITCHS
Juste noted that damage can occur
unless the right adjustments are made
inside diesel engines.
"This is
especially true in the winter because the oil starts to solidify at
three
degrees celsius and congeals at minus 17 degrees celsius, " he said.
And
the more recent the car is, the more expensive those kits become.
"For
cars with indirect injection systems, if you use over 50 percent of
vegetable
oil in your tank, you have to put a kit in place that costs around
200
euros," he said.
He added that for cars with direct injection systems,
motorists needed to
pay over 300 euros if they wished to consume over 50
percent of pure
vegetable oil.
The cost more than triples for last
generation motors, he said. "For a
vegetable oil usage exceeding 5 percent in
those motors, motorists will have
to spend between 600 and 1500 euros," he
added.
He said the cost was exactly the same for cars using Diester
(France's main
biodiesel producer).
ILLEGAL IN FRANCE
"We
think that it is about time to end the French exception that goes
against
European wishes and lift the TIPP (special petrol tax) on those oils
as well
as make them legal," Juste said, adding that Valenergol had been
asked to pay
a hefty fine for not paying the tax.
He added that the petrol lobby was
doing everything in its power to make
sure it would profit as much as
possible from the French race to boost its
biofuel output.
The
government has announced it aims to reach 5.75 percent biofuel content
in
fuels by 2008, 7 percent by 2010 and 10 percent by 2010.
Biofuels in
France are spilt between ethanol, a combustible fuel made from
sugar beet or
cereals that can be blended with conventional fuel, and
biodiesel, mainly
produced from rapeseed, which is then blended with diesel.
"It's
outrageous that biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel should get tax
breaks
when we are not even allowed to commercialise our product which is
far more
friendly to the environment," he said.
"The development of the pure
vegetable oil sector could be an incredible
opportunity to attract young
people to the farming profession at a time of
depopulation of the
countryside," Juste added.
Story by Muriel
Boselli
REUTERS NEWS
SERVICE |
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