Pure Plant Oil (PPO) is a biofuel made from cold-pressed rapeseed oil. It has been the main driver of indigenous biofuel production in Ireland, proving particularly popular in the haulage sector. To use PPO requires a modest investment in the conversion of your diesel vehicle. Using PPO in unmodified engines is not acceptable practice and risks harming your engine and the industry. This section of the website is a forum for posting news and information relevant to the activities of the Irish Bioenergy Association's PPO Sub-group
|
|
Friday, 30 July 2010 |
|
On 27th July Tipperary Institute hosted an IrBEA meeting of BioFuels industry representatives and representatives of biofuel customers to discuss the new Biofuel Obligation Scheme.
Under the Biofuel Obligation Scheme (BOS) trading for Irish producers of biofuels will become very difficult, if not impossible.It is widely expected that the main importers of fuel will import pre blended product to fulfil their obligation. This will leave no market (or a very poor market) for trading biofuel certificates.
Under the BOS all biofuel will be subject to MOT at 37c/litre + VAT. This will push the price of biofuel to an un-economic level above that of mineral diesel. The sale of certificates which is supposed to compensate for this price increase cannot be predicted, theoretically the certificates could be worth 40c, however if no market exists they will be worthless.
A number of proposals were put forward to work within the BOS including setting up a certificate trading co-op. It was also stressed that IrBEA can work at European level with AEBIOM to ensure the sustainability criteria of biofuels used under the BOS are stringent enough to favour EU produced and Irish produced biofuels. More details of this discussion will follow in the next few weeks.
|
|
|
Thursday, 15 October 2009 |
Green Isle Hotel, West Dublin 29th October 2009
9.30am - 3pm
Please find attached two invitations to the HIPPO final conference and IrBEA Biofuels Briefing
If you are interested in attending please contact Carina Mount Charles (
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
) as soon as possible. +353 41 988 4846
A light lunch will be served between the two briefings, which will be followed by a visit to Michael McBennett's oilseed crushing and PPO production facility nearby.
We hope to see you there. Registration for the event will begin at 9.30am. If you would like to attend the event please contact Carina in advance as numbers are limited.
 HIPPO Final Conference, Green Isle Hotel (291009)
IrBEA invite to Biofuels Briefing, Green Isle Hotel (291009)
|
|
|
Tuesday, 06 May 2008 |
An update from Valbiom 2nd of March 2007 - Regarding Belgian laws on pure plant oil.
Road Fuel Oils The European Commission gave its approval for the implementation in Belgium of the tax exemption proposed to them by the government, provided that Pure Plant Oil (PPO) remains as a niche market. For PPO this means that it will be added to the list of tax-exempted products. However, the administration wishes for PPO to remain a niche market and with a policy of direct sales from producer to consumer.
“rape seed oil complying with code NC 1514, used as fuel, provided that it is produced by a notional or physical person, acting as individual or in a group, based upon their own production, and that it is sold directly to the end user without any intermediaries.”
This sentence is subject to interpretation. A farmer or an agricultural co-op can be eligible, but another legal form is not excluded. The processing of rape-seed grown by the farmer him/herself is eligible, but any rape seed which comes from Belgian origin can equally be accepted. On the other hand there cannot be an intermediary between the producer and the final consumer.
For more details:  Valbiom_Belgium_ppo_en_mar07
|
|
|
Friday, 02 November 2007 |
Reports alleging that the mutagenic and carcinogenic potential of PPO-emissions is generally many times higher than that of Diesel-fuel emissions are refuted by new research carried out by the Technologie- und Förderzentrum (TFZ), Straubing/Germany and the bifa Umweltinstitut (environmental Institute), Augsburg/Germany. Samples of emission-particles have been examined, taken from the exhaust-emissions of a Deutz-Fahr-Tractor. The tractor was adapted to operate on PPO by installing a so-called 1-tank-system. The Particle-samples were taken at the testing-station of the Technologie- und Förderzentrum (TFZ) under consideration of internationally recognized testing methods. The Emissions of eight representative operating-cycles across the entire engine-operation range have been examined. The emissions under no-load conditions have been examined seperately as they generally show higher particle-emissions. The fuel used in the research-project was PPO according to pre-norm DIN V 51605 and standard Diesel-fuel according to DIN EN 590. The mutagenic potential of the emission-samples has been assessed at the bifa Umweltinstitut by using the Ames-Test. To ensure the accuracy of the results the concentration of health-relevant emission components have been analysed. The results show that the mutagenic potential of the emission particles of PPO during the eight operating-cycles is only half of that of diesel-fuel. In no-load conditions the mutagenic potential is lower by factor three or on a similar level as Diesel-fuel. The results show that the mutagenic effects of all samples – with the exception of Diesel-fuel under no-load condition – are on a very low level. The research proved that the risk of Particle emissions causing cancer or damage to genetic material is lower when the PPO-adapted engine is powered by PPO-fuel rather than Diesel fuel.
Note: Original research available in German at www.tfz.bayern.de courtesy of Hans Widmann, greencar.ie.
|
|
|
Friday, 20 July 2007 |
|
The Energy White Paper published by DCMNR in early March delivered good news for PPO. It specifically proposes the use of 100% pure plant oil (PPO) in captive fleets maintained by local authorities and public bodies as part of the governments plans for delivering higher biofuel targets. Some visibility on how the biofuels obligation is going to be shaped is given, with an industry consultation proposed over the next 12 months. It is certainly to be hoped that changes can be enacted more rapidly than this. Links to the paper and a summary of the parts of the paper of relevance for bioenergy is available here: http://www.irbea.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=277&Itemid=1
|
|
|
Thursday, 19 July 2007 |
The PPO Sub-group has prepared a policy statement which outlines the current anti-competitive biofuels market support scheme and sets out the growth potential and urgent support required for PPO.
PPO Policy_Statement_apr07 77kb
|
|
|
Friday, 23 February 2007 |
|
At a seminar on 19th February run by the German-Irish Chamber of Commerce, an excellent lineup of speakers updated the audience on the latest commercial and technical progress with Pure Plant Oil (PPO). Additionally a new grant to pay for up to 75% of engine modification costs was lauched with the support of the Dept of Transport. This will pay for up to 50 conversions this year. The deadline for applications is 30th March. See www.biofuelsfortransport.ie
|
|
|
|
Pure Plant Oil Sub Group