FuelClub Discount

Construction on the Yeongjong new city within the Incheon Free Economic Zone has stopped after dump truck drivers walked off the job demanding fee raises. Self-employed truckers are striking down in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, while unionized cargo truck drivers are thinking about holding a nationwide strike next month, raising worries of serious logistics problems. There has been a 30 percent drop in the number of fishing vessels going out into the East Sea this year, leading to a 20 to 30 percent rise in prices of fishery products. Each inter-city commuter bus is racking up between W3 million to W4 million (US$1=W1,037) in losses and half of the 100 or so operators of such transport services are in the red. The source of all these troubles is a 60 percent rise in the price of diesel fuel.

Diesel is the preferred means of energy for Korea’s working class. The transportation industry accounts for 80 percent of Korea’s total diesel consumption. Self-employed Korean cargo and dump truck drivers, operators of commuter buses and merchants selling products on the backs of small trucks, farmers and fishermen all rely on diesel.
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Biofuel pioneers who ran a lorry to Timbuktu on factory reject chocolate are hoping to enlist supporters in a novel holiday this summer. A two-week “Grease to Greece” rally will challenge entrants to drive from London to Athens in diesel cars fuelled only by cooking oil.

The drivers, as well as raising money for the British Heart Foundation, will win points for speed on racetrack sections and for “fat finding” at restaurants and takeaways along the 2,500-mile route. Entry requirements include “the ability to explain to a Croatian kebab shop owner that you need his grease”.

It is the latest in organiser Andy Pag’s series of attempts to highlight cheap alternatives to diesel using recycled fat. “The aim is also to give a further test to our belief that waste vegetable oil for long distances is practical and feasible, and to have a bit of a laugh on the way,” said Pag, 34. “Contrary to popular perception, diesel engines don’t need to be converted to run on biodiesel, and most diesel cars can comfortably cope with blending vegetable oil in with regular fuel.”
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Maryland’s attempt to produce greener energy took a dangerous turn after a bio-diesel plant exploded killing one man and injuring another.

Adam May reports, the explosion happened at the Greenlight Biofuels plant around noon Sunday in Somerset County. The plant just opened last year.

Emergency crews rushed to the Greenlight Biofuels plant on the Eastern Shore in Princess Anne after the deadly afternoon explosion.
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If Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the principle that bears his name, looked under the hood of today’s diesel-powered vehicles, he probably wouldn’t recognize the engine as a relative of the original compression ignition concept he patented 115 years ago.

In truth, the modern diesel has nothing in common with its older counterpart other than the fact it burns the same fuel.

Consider Audi’s victories at the fabled Le Mans 24-hour race with a diesel-powered race car. It went head-to-head with the best gasoline-powered engines the world has to offer and whipped them all. Obviously, the racing engine is different from the road-going version, but it demonstrates how the once lowly oil-burner is now capable of speed, enduring performance and terrific overall efficiency.
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Diesel will cost Forest Hills Public Schools as much as $125,000 more than officials planned to spend this school year.

The school board voted Monday night to authorize the district to spend up to $625,000 on diesel for the 2007-08 school year. The board previously approved $500,000 in August 2007.

It was a substantial increase over the prior year’s diesel cost of $390,000. Administrators hoped the initial increase would cover the rising cost of fuel.
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A former computer programmer has developed a process by which waste cooking oil can be converted into a fuel which can be used to run diesel-powered cars.

According to the Scotsman, Alexander MacDonald, using a simple process, converts old cooking oil into biodiesel that can go directly into the fuel tank of any diesel-powered car.

The newly developed fuel has far lower levels of harmful emissions than traditional fuel, and at 96 pence a litre, is also cheaper.

For collecting the cooking oil that would otherwise be thrown away, MacDonald visits about 100 restaurants in Glasgow.
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