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FISH AND CHIP OIL IN DEMAND FOR TO FUEL `GREEN' CARS(New Zealand Press Association Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Wellington, April 10 NZPA - A Wellington company says the increasing interest in running cars on ``biodiesel'' has sparked a big demand for supplies of waste cooking oil in New Zealand. ``There has been a huge upswing in demand for waste oil in New Zealand,'' Envirocar director Robert Kornfeld said. The company was importing small amounts of vegetable oil from the Indian sub-continent and Africa and researching the viability of growing plants for fuel oil in New Zealand. The company manufactures a conversion kit that allows vehicles to run on environmentally-friendly vegetable oil, which it gathers from restaurants and fast food outlets and recycles for use as a fuel. Conversion costs just under $4000 and means the vehicle can run on diesel, recycled or new vegetable oil, biodiesel or a combination of the fuels. Another director of the company, David Renwick, has been running a 4WD on fish and chip oil for over a year and has said that tests have shown fuel consumption is about a third better than using commercial diesel. ``There is outstanding potential in the renewable energy sector to augment or replace diesel fuel with vegetable oil,'' said Mr Kornfeld. The company already collects waste oil, and has stockpiled more than 28,000 litres of the oil in Wellington, where it has contracted two garages to install its conversion kits in vehicles. Mr Kornfeld said the volume of waste oil available in New Zealand could run around 3000 passenger vehicles each year. It plans to set up similar operations in Christchurch and Auckland by the end of the year. ``Having certainty of supply is crucial to persuading vehicle owners to make the change,'' says Mr Kornfeld. ``Using imported oil would still stack up financially if we source it from countries where it's viewed as a low value, waste product. ``It may also be viable to grow plants in New Zealand that produce a non-food grade oil suitable for use as a fuel.'' When Meridian Energy was seeking a ``clean and green'' image for its since cancelled Project Aqua, it planned to run the earthmoving machinery on biodiesel made from tallow supplied by South Island meatworks. And the company that created the world's largest biodiesel plant, Argent Energy, is investigating building a biodiesel refinery in New Zealand. Argent started production of biodiesel fuel in Britain from used cooking oil and animal fat in March last year. Envirocar is using $93,000 in Government science funding to make its conversion kit a world leader. Its converted vehicles are started using diesel because a fuel temperature of around 80degC is required to get the oil fluid enough to perform like diesel. Instead, the company wants to pre-heat enough waste vegetable oil to fire the engine from cold. NZPA WGT kca hl dj |