FuelClub Discount

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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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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While Indian public sector oil refiners have been importing diesel to meet the rising domestic demand, the private sector major Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), which enjoys export-oriented unit (EOU) status, has been exporting the product from its Jamnagar refinery.

The surge in diesel consumption saw imports soaring more than nine times to 2,88,600 tonnes in March. The total for the year 2007-08 at 2.93 million tonnes (mt) was more than double that of the previous year. Apart from PSU refiners, domestically diesel is also procured from Essar Oil with IOC buying over 1 mt a year from the company’s Vadinar refinery. The PSU refiners are not exporting any diesel.

Overall, Indian refiners exported 17 per cent more petroleum products in 2007-08 at 39.32 mt than the previous year, with two-thirds of it being exported by private refiners. Diesel constituted over 36 per cent of the total exports. Other drivers of exports were naphtha, petrol, and ATF. In March, exports grew 8.5 per cent to 3.36 mt.
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