A slow uptake for pure plant oil on the farm

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Diesel oil substitute straight from the field seems a logical solution for on-farm energy independence. But in Europe the 100-year argument for PPO in the tank still founders on the rocks of cheap fossil fuel and illogical taxation

by NORMAN DUNN

Rudolf Diesel registered his newly patented engine in 1893 as capable of running on pure plant oil. Was this too straightforward, even then? The conception of home-produced plant oil was largely ignored. Kerosene, and then the oil that took over the name diesel, were soon accepted as more convenient.

Over 120 years later, things haven't changed much in the fuel world. European farmers, for instance, are still wondering about pure plant oil (PPO) as a substitute fuel in their diesel engines. The argument has heated up in the last decade or so with some of the largest tractor manufacturers offering "multifuel" self-igniters – engines that can handle fossil diesel, biodiesel (RME) or PPO.

Of course, "biodiesel" or rape methyl ester (RME) is already established as an optional, environmentally-friendly fuel, although in Europe this also suffers from competition from fossil diesel that's only a tad more expensive. European governments back biodiesel introduction and some, notably Austria and Germany, also financially support a change to PPO as fuel.

As I write, the German "PraxTrak" project is coming to a successful end. Whereby John Deere, backed by research institutes in southern Germany and government, designed and launched a six-cylinder and four-cylinder engine to run on pure canola oil with almost the same power efficiency and meeting all present exhaust gas emission requirements. On top of this, CO² emissions compared with those from the same engines on fossil diesel have been reduced by 57 per cent, according to Deere engineers.

Joining Deere is a fleet of other tractor makes that have taken part in a 30,000-hour test using canola power, including Fendt, CNH and Deutz-Fahr. Fourteen PPO fueled tractors have completed two years of work on Bavarian research farms with no significant downtime, apart from one single fuel pump failure. Here, too, performance matches fossil fuel output and exhaust emissions meet all present demands.

However, the result that has really got arms waving in the climate protection lobby here is that 375,000 litres of diesel fuel have been saved during the test program, representing a reduction of around 700 tonnes of CO² emissions.

Neighbouring Austria is even more serious about canola power. Long-term tests there have included a 35-tractor (50-125 h.p.) trial operated in real field conditions over a total of almost 60,000 hours. Both single tank (PPO only) and dual tank (starting and idling with diesel and switching to PPO for continuous work) systems were tested. Again, no significant running problems were reported by the farmers involved.

Both Austria and the German state of Bavaria have supported pure canola oil fuel for diesels with grants (almost) covering the cost of converting conventional diesels to run better on PPO. In Bavaria, this aid of up to the equivalent of C$10,700 per tractor can also go towards the purchase of new-generation tractors with multifuel engines.

Despite all this activity, acceptance of the concept continues to be relatively hesitant, even in the regions spotlighted above where the government support has been backed with presentations and field demonstrations.

Barriers to more acceptance are fossil diesel's low price at the pumps along with an illogical "energy tax" in Germany (and approved by the European Union for application in other countries) that has slapped an extra $0.64 per litre on the retail price of both PPO and biodiesel.

Little wonder that fuel buyers are hesitating! As ever, everyone's waiting for clearer signals from above before they take the plunge.

This chaos has more than a little to do with PPO's proportion in all European automotive fuel coming in at just nine per cent. Estimates for PPO used alone in the tank are actually at less than one per cent.

It's all the more refreshing, then, that there are adventurous types such as farmer Hein Aberson from the Frisian region in the Netherlands. He's started a farmer co-operative producing cold-pressed canola oil certified as the European standard for modern common rail diesel engines. Aberson and 50 neighbouring farmers have established a central crusher and a marketing company called Solaroil Systems (SOS). The co-op claims that all its trucks, cars and tractors are now running exclusively on cold-pressed canola oil.

Replacing fossil diesel completely in this way means that CO² emissions per crop growing acre have been slashed by 80 per cent on the co-operative farmland.  (Where canola is pressed under heat, CO² savings with the resultant fuel are put at 57 per cent.)

Taking tax into account, total costs for the PPO fuel make it just slightly more economical for the Dutch farmers than conventional diesel. But swinging the calculation well into the farmers' favour is the co-product of canola meal, which is used as a feed protein source for livestock throughout the region. This home-produced meal is working out 30 per cent cheaper than imported soybean meal.

There's no doubt about the climate-saving advantages for canola diesel fuel on the farm. And this has settled the matter for a growing number of farmers who want to do something for the environment. But pioneers such as the SOS co-operative are now showing that there's also money to me made from PPO in Europe.

Rudolf Diesel would probably have been very puzzled by the long delays in acceptance of his chosen fuel. BF