With increasing demand for fuel sources new alternatives are continuously searched. In recent times rapeseed oil has been found to be a good alternative fuel. It is known as rape methyl caster (RME) and is becoming increasingly popular in Europe for buses taxis and tractors.
Although RME is slightly more expensive than diesel it produces almost no sulphur dioxide and less carbon dioxide and carbon particle making it particularly suitable for buses and taxis in urban areas. It also does not make a net contribution to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because the carbon that is contains was only recently extracted from the yellow flowers of the rape plants.
Oil is extracted from rape simply by crushing with three tuns of rape yielding one tuns of oil. Most till but they become clogged after some days. To prevent this glycerin must be removed from the oil. For this each turn of oil is mixed with 110 kg of methanol in the presence of nitrogen hydroxide catalyst and heated between 40°C and 50 C. The glycerin settles down leaving thin RME.
It has been found that engines do suffer from a slight loss of power when this oil issued but Italian tractor maker same Estimates that the average power loss is less than 2% as compared with diesel.
Austria leads the rest of Europe in using this fuel It is on sale in at Least 100 petrol stations there Environmentalists in Europe also favor this fuel.
There is disagreement over how much more expensive RME js as compared to diesel British RME makers say it may be as much as 15% more but Austrian claim that they can make it the same price as diesel in India also big cities need this alternative fuel to prevent increasing air population by buses.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 15, 1994
