E10 Fuel September 2021

[stuffedpike20]

Can anyone tell me if you have to change anything (ie timing?) when switching from using unleaded to super unleaded?

Thanks. John.

[ianmack]

I don’t think alterations are needed but probably it would be a matter of fine adjustment of the individual vehicle rather than anything radical.

I’ve been running a Minor for twenty years now and every few years the petrol is altered and we worry for our cars. Rather than try to anticipate what will need replacing I just respond to any problems as they arise. So far the only fuel problem has been a leaking pump to carb hose, a cheap and simple replacement, probably not worth losing sleep over. Nothing in a Minor fuel system is hugely expensive.

The scientific body of opinion is around 95% that climate change is real and human activity contributes to it. The various activists may be somewhat tiresome but disregarding the environmental question because you don’t like Greta really is missing the point.

[Owlsman]

I do think there's something in your viewpoint, Mike. I too have been of the opinion, for some time, that there is a clean fuel solution bubbling somewhere just under the surface, ready to miraculously surface......... just as oil is about to run out.

I know that makes me sound like some cranky conspiracy theorist, which I am absolutely not. Probably like Mike however, I do find myself getting more cynical with age.

Is anyone on here familiar with fuel cell technology? I know it already exists and is believed to be about as 'clean' as clean can possibly get........so what is holding it back? Surely, politics couldn't possibly involved........could it?

I try and cycle, within reason, as much as I can rather than using my car or public transport but I do that more for health than environmental reasons. What does get my goat though, is the fact that we in the UK (and the West generally) are trying to do our bit - less meat, electric/hybrid cars, solar panels, etc. etc. etc. but in China, there doesn't seem to be even the slightest attempt to cut emissions.

[MorrisJohn]

You know, I read an article (in Private Eye) recently that showed that Carnival Cruises European sailings alone accounted for ten times the amount of toxic sulphur dioxide that all of Europe’s 260m cars combined produce. Sulphur oxides cause cardiovascular disease, cancer, asthma.

They’re not alone. Take Royal Caribbean, next worst, they produced four times the level of noxious emissions of Europe’s entire car fleet.

Instead of investing in cleaner fuel the shipping industry use the cheapest and nastiest stuff they can get. They use a process called “scrubbing” to remove carcinogens and heavy metals from exhaust gasses, which they then...dump in the sea!

Cruise ships aside, consider the reliance in the west for cheap disposable consumer goods produced in dirty factories with cheap/slave labour then shipped or flown around the world.

Whilst I don’t want children growing up breathing in exhaust fumes, forgive me for being more than a little sceptical when we are being beaten with a stick and told to switch to electric vehicles to save the planet.

[Chief]

I guess the club should invest in an old banger off eBay (you know, a spares or repairs in bad shape) that they can work out how to get running on 100% plant based ethanol

Is anyone on here familiar with fuel cell technology?

James May has one which he drives (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Mirai), in fact its his second. Downside is there's only something like four places in the UK he can re-fuel at. So currently its apparently a lack of infastructure holding things back.

[Myrtles Man]

Seems to me that mankind is, to put it mildly, a little confused. On the one hand we have rightful concerns about the profligate use of energy and its long-term adverse effects on the planet and everything on it and in it while on the other hand we have Richard Branson, Elon Musk etc promoting joy-rides to the edge of space plus stuff like this:-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56012952

[stuffedpike20]

I don’t think alterations are needed but probably it would be a matter of fine adjustment of the individual vehicle rather than anything radical.

I’ve been running a Minor for twenty years now and every few years the petrol is altered and we worry for our cars. Rather than try to anticipate what will need replacing I just respond to any problems as they arise. So far the only fuel problem has been a leaking pump to carb hose, a cheap and simple replacement, probably not worth losing sleep over. Nothing in a Minor fuel system is hugely expensive.

The scientific body of opinion is around 95% that climate change is real and human activity contributes to it. The various activists may be somewhat tiresome but disregarding the environmental question because you don’t like Greta really is missing the point.

Thank you Ian.

[ianmack]

The Chinese, big ships and Bitcoin are valid concerns but I think circumstances will catch up with them in time and we can all influence markets in a small way. I don't go on cruises or buy Bitcoins and I try to minimise purchases of imported tat. The difficulty with looking askance is that it represents a race to the bottom, they behave badly so there’s no point anyone doing any better. Some people leave litter and dog mess on the pavement so we may as well all do.

As for Branson and Musk I think it is probably too early to judge their efforts. Only time will tell whether commercial interests have any useful part to play in the future of space or if they are just toys for rich boys. After all, a little over a hundred years ago aeroplanes and motor vehicles were dismissed as rich boys’ toys.

[philthehill]

We are concerned about E10 but they have been using E85 in Australia for some considerable time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E85

[kevin s]

And E100 in south America.

To the question above Fuel cells have 2 issues.
1 cost- most use lots of expensive rare metals though there is work on replacing these with polymers.
2 fuel- they need pure hydrogen which is not widely and carrying your own processing plant around to generate it from other fuels is not really practical.

In the hgv sector there is a push for bio methane, that could fairly easily be an alternative for older cars.

[philthehill]

Worrying about fuel ???
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/58050375

[Monty-4]

And E100 in south America.

To the question above Fuel cells have 2 issues.
1 cost- most use lots of expensive rare metals though there is work on replacing these with polymers.
2 fuel- they need pure hydrogen which is not widely and carrying your own processing plant around to generate it from other fuels is not really practical.

In the hgv sector there is a push for bio methane, that could fairly easily be an alternative for older cars.

The research and prototypes on batteries using Carbon instead of Lithium are very promising indeed. Lithium batteries may turn out to be a "transition" technology much like hybrid vehicles are a step towards fully electic.

More generally, projecting responsibility onto individual consumers is clearly a deliberate tactic from the 100 or so corporations responsible for in excess of 70% of global emissions - and the number of journalists and politicians willing to stand up to them may perhaps be counted on one hand.

Whilst it's common sense and a basic matter of respect to not personally pollute and litter your local environment with plastics and cheap crap, feeling guilty about the emissions of a Morris Minor is not rational, in my opinion, and neither is lashing out at the wrong targets (Greta, Attenborough et al). The blame is squarely with governments and the likes of Shell, BP, Saudi Aramco, etc.