Now Cars Can Fill up with Biodiesel

by Hu Min (Shanghai Daily) ... Now private vehicles are able to run on a mixture of biodiesel fuels following more than 100 buses already on Shanghai roads that are doing so.

Two Sinopec gas stations, in Fengxian District and the Pudong New Area, started offering the B5 hybrid fuel to the public yesterday in a trial.

The fuel is a combination of 95 percent of regular diesel and 5 percent biodiesel, which is made from swill oil. Regular diesel is priced at 6.02 yuan (91 US cents) per liter, while the hybrid fuel is 5.72 yuan, which includes a 5 percent discount to encourage more people to use it.

Lou Diming, head of the Internal Combustion Engine Research Institute from Tongji University, said the buses did not experience any problems after using the fuel.

“In addition, their discharge of heavy metal and fine particulate matters dropped more than 10 percent compared with those using regular diesel,” Lou said.

Biodiesel fueling will be used on freighters on Yangtze River, and more gas stations in the city are expected to provide the fuel in the future, said Yang Jingsong, director of the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration. READ MORE