The first tractors with engines purpose-built to run on pure
rapeseed oil with full warranty will appear at Germany's
Agritechnica
show in Hanover from 13th-17th Nov.
Deutz – which already manufactures engines specially designed
for operation with 100% RME biodiesel – simplifies farmer fuel
requirements still further with its “Natural Fuel Engines” fully
guaranteed for fuelling with crude, unprocessed vegetable oil.
Certain
Deutz Fahr tractors
and a
new Fendt
model will be launched with the pioneer engines which range from
80hp to 330hp.
The system features two tanks, one for conventional diesel and the
other for cold-pressed rapeseed oil or any other vegetable oil of
comparable standard.
At the heart of the new four and six cylinder power-plants is an
electronic fuel management system that automatically starts the
engine with conventional diesel and switches to pure vegetable oil
when the right operating temperature is reached.
The system monitors the combustion process of the common rail
system ensuring low exhaust emissions at starting, for instance. It
also governs a tank heating system to avoid fuel waxing.
The engines should cost about 10% more than the similar models
for conventional diesel, according to Deutz. The extra cost, said
the engine manufacturer, is almost entirely due to the new
electronic engine management involved.
“This should give every farmer the confidence to use renewable
and untaxed fuel straight from the field with all the savings this
represents,” announced Deutz spokesman Dirk Müller while adding
that the pure vegetable oil used for the engines must be of a
required quality standard (DIN EN 51605 in Germany). This minimum
standard of fuel wholesales at around 50 pence/litre in Germany
currently while RME biodiesel averages the equivalent of 68p/l.
Pure vegetable oil is more energy-dense than RME biodiesel and
so offers performance and consumption near that of fossil fuel,
according to Dieter Bockey of
UFOP, the German organisation for
the promotion of oil and protein crops.
“The introduction of these new tractor engines represents a
tremendous breakthrough for the energy crop sector,” he told
Farmers Weekly.
“The fact that a world concern such as Deutz now has products
that are guaranteed to run on pure crop oil will open the door to
more extensive use of these fuels with all the environmental
advantages.”
He adds that the pressure is now on for the other major
manufacturers to follow suit with such engines and tractors. This
will not only affect the agricultural sector. Deutz, for instance,
delivers 30,000 engines a year to
Volvo for
its trucks and he believes the demand for pure vegetable oil
engines in the trucking sector will be just as strong as in the
farming sector.
Agritechnica takes place in Hanover, Germany from
13th-17th Nov.
Flights leave from Stansted, Manchester and
Birmingham.
The Agritechnica website
has details of
accommodation.
If you don’t have time to organise it yourself contact theAgricultural Travel
Bureau - 01636 705612. A typical two
night stay with flights will cost in the region of £340.
Admission to the show costs 20 euros (Students 10
euros).