South Korean car manufacturer SsangYong - controlled by China's Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation - is reported to be using New Zealand as a test-bed for using waste vegetable oil as an automotive fuel.
Today's Dominion Post newspaper says SsangYong has provided a 2.9-litre turbo-diesel Musso to Lower Hutt company Renewable Energy Solutions, which has converted the Musso to a dual-fuel vehicle that can run on either conventional diesel or "Envirofuel" - recycled waste cooking oil.
Renewable Energy Solutions is also converting a 2.7-litre, diesel SsangYong Stavic (a new seven-seater MPV) to test the fuel.
Renewable Energy’s David Renwick says the company has been running the Musso 4WD on fish and chip oil for over a year.
It plans to offer a NZ$5000 conversion kit for vehicles that would include dual fuel tanks, a heater, and a 1000-litre home tank to top up with waste vegetable oil. His company's website says this would cost only NZ$0.49 per litre.
Tests had shown fuel consumption was about a third better than using commercial diesel, Renwick claimed.
No chemicals were added to the oil. It was warmed in the vehicle's tank to the point where it was thin enough to be properly atomised by the fuel injectors, thus enabling it to burn properly without forming deposits on the injectors and in the cylinder head.
Russell Burling, chairman of SsangYong's Australian importer Rapson Holdings, is reported to have said his company is planning to send an engineer to Australia next month to look at the possibility of conducting Australian trials of the Envirofuel technology.
