Apparently diesel in the central region of the Peninsular Malaysia will be B5 biodiesel from June 2011 onwards. It was supposed to be implemented earlier but had a four year delay – and next year it will be here, apparently at the petroleum company and government’s cost.
The government will be spending RM43.1 million on developing six petroleum depots with biodiesel blending capabilities while all other costs (per litre costs?) will be born by the petroleum companies. At least that’s what Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok is saying for now, according to a report in The Edge. We might end up paying for this some way or another. The days of low subsidised diesel prices may just end soon. At least diesel will still be a good idea even after a price hike because it inherently has higher energy content and can go further on a litre compared to gasoline.
B5 is basically a blend of 95% regular petroleum-based diesel and 5% palm oil-based biodiesel. Apparently Sime Darby’s fleet of company 730Ld limos have been running on biodiesel fuel produced by the group and are running fine. I’ve contacted BMW Malaysia for clarification if the 320d, 520d, 730Ld and X5 3.0d can indeed run on the new B5 fuel without issues or not. I’ve also contacted Sime Darby AutoconneXion on their various non-truck passenger diesels. But there shouldn’t be an issue.
I will update you guys when I get answers.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
do we have to modified our engine to cope with this bio fuel ?
That really depends the model of the engine. Hopefully G will provide guideline for this issue.
i think 5% blend is minimal…no modification required..as i know, modification required when biodiesel at B20(20% biodiesel+80% diesel)..
as u achieve above this B20 blend u hav to replace our fuel line to synthetic rubber fuel line (usually used of natural rubber especially older version diesel vehicles) from natural rubber that degrade by biodiesel fuel…that's all
But originally Rudolf Diesel invented diesel engine with peanut oil…so palm oil biodiesel is the 'original' fuel for diesel engine not petroleum diesel!!
eh ? i tot palm oil solution was rejected due to the side effect of the gas that possible could harm the environment ?
mengarut!! mana ada…biodiesel is safer without sulfur and other hazardous chemical…
when biodiesel burn in combustion engine, u can only inhales 'pisang Goreng' fumes…
so don't inhales too much that it make air liur meleleh teringat pisang goreng!!
that only propaganda from west company due to us many palm oil tree n they cannot grow palm oil tree at their country
maybe small hints by government our diesel price more than RM2.50/litre(current biodiesel price is RM2.80) in near future…hence gomen is reluctant to subsidize this biofuel and completely 'burden' to oil company…
I don't really mind the price of diesel. As an engineer, I look at it scientifically and it is beyond doubt that diesel > petrol for the mileage – even with price increases.
However, as an auto enthusiast – the klak-klak-klak of a diesel engine… tak macho langsung!
klak-klak-klak-….thats character bro! ; )
good move if gov plan to use biodiesel after 4 years…. but i doubt that gov is honest about the objective, it look like gov try to find away to increase price of fuel to get some money. same approach when stop RON92, replace with RON95.
if gov/people able to reduce usage of gas/petrol ,(which mean improve public transport in city) as result, gov able to reduce subsidy that gov need to pay + able to provide bus contract
people dont bother if need to pay 1/2 of what they spend on petrol for commute for daily work, and another 3/4 for security of they car at home/taman.
i dont think gov have efficiency thinking…. alway want money from people…
then join the gov…throw ur idea of efficiency
with this does it mean that diesel would maintain its market price??
talk talk talk talk, and talk talk talk talk….
And also, ever since the day they trying to associate our cooking oil with petroleum, we are borne to suffer from oil price hike, edible or not.
So be prepare to buy your buruh oil at the same price as canola/sun flower/soya oil in the near future.
i don think so..do u ever see sun flower, soya n compare it with palm tree fruit not the palm tree
Should we accept bio diesel? Is this just plain bureaucracy of oil palm producing companies by sime darby?
The idea of renewable energy is a good one. Forget the price, lets talk about the effeciency of such a fuel.
1. Statistics have shown, that biodisel fuels from palm oil contributes more CO2 then normal diesel. Let me explain, the plantation on palm oil trees cause massive deforestation and open burning that has released massive amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere. Comparatively, bio diesel from other sources such as corn are less polluting. Such co2 release cannot be off set by the production and usage of biodiesel. In-fact, it can take more than 100 years to reverse such effects.
2. The usage of B5 will simply create a demand for palm oil and palm oil plantations, and deforestation will increased causing more co2 release leading to global warming.
3. Why biodiesel then? If the government really cares about the environment they should forget about biodiesel and improve diesel quality to euro 4/5. The current standard of euro 2m has too much sulfur content which results in sulfur dioxide release, which leads to global warming, smog, and acid rain.
So why bother? because companies such have sime darby currently have overstock of palm oil. How to get rid of it without dropping the price? create bigger market consumption of course leading to more demand, higher prices and more profits for this group of people. While the people suffer the cost of global warming…
4. What else? pesticide use increases polluting over rivers which are our source of water and seafood.
I suggest the government to reconsider the implementation of such a policy and design a study by NGO to calculate the effect of such a program. More benefits will be gained by using cleaner diesels instead of mixing dirty euro 2m diesel with palm oil.
agree.
it will be scary when we human have to compete with cars for food (oil). the solution is there, only lack political will:
1. reduce the tax for hybrid (they can't, proton will die)
2. Intro euro 4 (can't, coz Hicom's lori not compatible)
3. set a minimum fuel efficiency for cars that can be sold (can't, proton don't have the technology)
thank you proton. thank you mahathir.
and, do all the policy in malaysia govern by proton?
haish… dont be too narrow cant ya?
is it not? tell me, why gov intro RON95 and 97 and not RON91?
Most Japs and European cars are compatible with RON91, go check the manual book. If government introduce RON91 which is cheaper than RON95, then nobody will want to buy Proton anymore. Coz the minimum RON for most protons are RON95.
and, do all the policy in malaysia govern by proton?
yes! most of them!
haish… open up your eyes, can't ya?
childish thinking….i tot u r the one oppose when gov change ron98 to ron95 n ron97 say that engine knocking high hence damage engine..n now u said jap n euro car compatible…that very flipflipflopflop
me the one who oppose when gove change ron98 to ron95 and ron97?
errr… when did I oppose? I support, me lived in aust for 2 years, and they use ron 91 with no problem and i don see knocking in their cars.
DON'T PUT WORDS INTO MY MOUTH!
i mean "u" to everybody especially malaysian (they wan to change G bcoz of RON thingy)…just generalize to all easier…malas to sent same comment…don get mad..hehe
Very true. question is, how do 5% of the additive make any differences in biodiesel?
Allow me to top up on your statement:
1. Corn biodiesel itself is alleged to have negative energy balance, ie, you put in more energy to plant the crop then what you get from using to run an oil burner.
2. The first sentence is the MAIN purpose. — To create demand for oil palm. Forget about deforestation and co2 release, the westerners always pointing their fingers to others and we always think that it is just their strategy to protect their own kind of vegetable oil. In the end, fingers keep pointing, earth hour is celebrated as a festival while earth continue its way to destruction.
3. Yes, thats the MAIN point. And NOTHING ELSE. Remember last time gov trying to do scrap policy and use environmental as an excuse? Everybody know they are just trying to push Proton's sales.
4. In a country where rakyat couldnt even differentiate tissue paper and office paper, and throw garbage bags into river and banana leaf into longkang, we really can't expect that much.
I STRONGLY AGAINST the idea of burning palm oil, it is solely and only because I do not want to buy them at double/triple the price later.
Is it really?
because somewhere i read, American is funding those NGOs bcoz they are afraid that their corn oil, sunflower oil business affected.
Vezeroth: interesting. i don't mean to refute you or anything but i would've guessed the oil palm would reabsorb some of the CO2 during their lifetime.
how much more CO2 does biodiesel release into the atmosphere as compared to conventional diesel?
You see, this is a very complicated question.
The simple answer is palm tree absorb co2 released from burning biodiesel and this completes a cycle of carbon, hence zero emission.
The real but complicated answer is that things dont just work that way,
– firstly, you would need one year worth of food (in terms of energy) to fill up one full tank of an SUV.
– secondly, oil crops including palm oil required extensive fertilizer on a fertile land which could otherwise contribute to feeding hungry and dying mouths, it is unethical to burn food, or displace food crop like that.
– third, the rain forest being cleared to make way for palm oil estates, we are not only losing a major carbon sink / green lung, we will lose the entire eco system, evolved over billions of year, forever.
– lastly, for the carbon balance issue, here are what will not make palm oil carbon neutral:
A) When a rain forest is cleared, palm oil estates will not absorb more carbon then rain forest and for the reason stated above.
B) If the rain forest is on a peat land, on the moment that it is cleared for palm oil, it will slowly release CO2 by itself, oil palm will not grow too well due to the acidity, we are actually contributing to CO2. But then, profitability came first.
C) When fertilizer is used in agriculture activity, especially on an industrial scale basis, NOx will be released, which is a more powerful green house gas then CO2. Creating and multiplying the negative effect.
D) Transporting and processing those palm fruits into the stuff behind your fuel pump would take another toll on CO2 emission.
E) MOST OF OUR DIESEL VEHICLES are old and obsolete technology, unlike those efficient green diesel Europeans having. Do not expect a smoking old lorry to have anything to do with environmental friendly.
With all the points about, it is really very very little change that palm oil will have anything to do with absorbing CO2.
Yaiks, long answer pulak…
hmmmmmmmmm ok, i learned something new today.
for point D), wouldn't transporting regular diesel also be the same?
for point E), wouldn't this also apply to regular diesel fuel?
but damn u're right – i hate it when people use mother earth in a non-suitainable and irresponsible manner. sigh :(
For those lazy to read, just bear in mind, all these for pumping up palm oil demand aka price, aka PROFIT.
Valid question you have posted:
D) Please compare below
oil rig (one point) -> super tanker -> Refinery -> trailer -> pump
oil palm estate (500k acres area) -> lorry -> oil mill -> trailer -> biodiesel plant -> trailer -> refinery (blend in 5%) -> trailer -> pump
An oil rig can easily produce a few good 10k barrels of petroleum per day, an acre of oil palm can produce around 5 tons of oil per year, which will fuel a hilux for around 50k kilometers.
E) We are already wasting regular diesel, can we afford to waste the even more precious biodiesel with our own food on the sure lose betting table?
And yes, true, its like all those junk food like to stamp "healthy" on their package. Sime Darby, their so called "sustainability", is actually means "the ability to cash in profit continuously".
They (MPOB and gov) even go as far as:
– Promoting the "bio-diversity" of monoculture oil palm estate having a few kind of birds and small mammals (rain forest have 100000 times more species), even though all you can find is crow and poisoned dead rats.
– Attempting to convince the international society that palm oil estates and rubber estates is actually a type of "forest", to reflect this, M'sia gov has cleared thousands of acres of permanent forest reserve(Acacia forest) to make way for "rubber forest"
OMG
1 ton = 7.5 barrels
5 ton = 37.5 barrels
that 37.5 barrels of palm oil per year one acre
36.5 mln (100k bbl/d) barrels from oil rig (one point) per year
1 acre = 5 ton = 37.5 barrels
malaysia hav 11,119,696 acre (55,598,480 ton oil) palm oil = 416,988,600 barrels per year
2007 malaysia produce 703,000 barrels /d = 2,56,595,000 barrels per year
correct me if my calc wrong coz to much number
u can convert here
http://www.tnk-bp.com/calculator/ http://www.osapeninsulaproperties.com/converter.h… http://www.metric-conversions.org/area/acres-to-h…
heheh… the gomen never think far…
in short run sure is environment friendly,
but in long run,
planting sawit will turn the rainforest into desert…
Then, FELDA is proving something else… isnt it?
My friend, oil palm is nutrient sapper, they required high input of fertilizer to maintain high output of FFB, as a return, the land is sucked dry where nothing else can live anymore.
An everyday example is – have you ever seen those road side oil palm bear any fruits?
Nearly never, nobody is fertilizing them.
Felda in this case, if they found something negative about oil palm, do you think they will / allowed-to publish it?
since when palm oil tree require so much fertilizer….prove it first..
"The proper approach to oil palm development begins with the establishment of leguminous cover plants, immediately following land clearing. It helps prevent soil erosion and surface run-off, improve soil structure and palm root development, increase the response to mineral fertilizer in later years, and reduce the danger of micronutrient deficiencies. Leguminous cover plants also help prevent outbreaks of Oryctes beetles, which nest in exposed decomposing vegetation. Both phosphorus and potassium fertilizers are needed to maximize the leguminous cover plants’ symbiotic nitrogen fixation potential of approximately 200 kg nitrogen/ha/yr and are applied to most soils at 115 to 300 kg phosphorous oxide/ha and 35 to 60 kg potassium oxide/ha. Young palms are severely set back where grasses are allowed to dominate the inter-row vegetation, particularly on poor soils where the correction of nutrient deficiencies is difficult and costly." extracted from wikipeida
Vezeroth:
Its interesting idea, but again the forest is being replaced by another green area that balanced out the CO2 effects, as opposed to clearing the land for urbanisation.
My only worry is that it will increase the demand for palm oil which is an edible oil and this will increase the price of food item here. From previous announce there will be an increase in the price of palm oil and it will effectively be passed down to us in term of increase in food price (diesel price is mainly affected by the other component 95% )
Which concludes to a lose-lose situation, the only winner is Sime Darby and large oil palm estates.
where to get corn seed or soy beans in m'sia? pasar malam? supermarket? if scientists can alter palm oil's molecular structure to become bio diesel, they should be able to refine it to be of higher quality.
deforestation is a problem that gov. should deal with more seriously. but if mass production of biodiesel will help increase palm oil's price, help the poors, help the small size farmers, und so weiter.
to vezeroth..don't you watch television..
1.Biodisel fuels from palm oil contributes more CO2 then normal diesel-> maybe its true, but palm oil not adding extra CO2 to our atmosphere. CO2 from normal diesel that we used today are one that had been stored deep down earth million years ago. what we did past 100 years is dig all this CO2 and this what make our earth face global warming issue..
2. Its also true to use other oil based plant to make will make its price increase. but which plant that produce more oil per acre other than palm oil. As one of the world largest producer. we should get advantage.if you smart…start investing on oil palm industries la…
3. how much oil palm absord CO2 from atmosphere during its life cycle compared with other plant like olive and corn. the bigger the tree, the larger the surface area of leaves to process the CO2 gases.i think..
4.Pesticide use increases polluting over rivers which are our source of water and seafood-> you think 'orang kampong' now are not going to school…not know how to read label before wasting their money on averdosage of pesticide and fertiliser..oil palm also not using pesticide as much as your vegetables at nearest market..
Price hike is certain. if not now. it always happen in future…especially when we're very much depend on current petroleum economy. Any method to ease our dependent on oil will help us prepare the time when all oil is depleted…
i support the idea of using this palm oil biodiesel ! go biodiesel!
Please be reminded that, Malaysia is:
– The largest importer of maize (corn) in South East Asia, all our chicken are literally depends on imported grains.
– imports rice
– need to import stabler crop like chili, coconut, beef, mutton, vegetable, during every festival season to be able to meet the demand.
– imports really a lot of sugar
– imports many other raw material which could otherwise will grown in our own soil.
– we even need to import cocoa and coffee which we used to export.
– have almost no exported crop which is significant other then oil palm and rubber wood(yes, the wood, coz they were chopped for oil palm)
JUST BECAUSE EVERYBODY IS PLANTING OIL PALM FOR GOD SAKE WE DO NOT NEED ANY MORE OF THEM NOW.
– malaysia not so suitable to grow quality jagung(corn)
– thats y the bolehland G wan sawarak to become jelapang padi.
– simple answer…the use of these item triple than usual..u should say ayam sekali
– we should grow sugar cane so can produce ethanol for biofuel
– imp raw material..eg wood? what raw material?iron?crude oil?
– malaysia export earnings cocoa related product 2007 is RM 2.588 billion and import RM 2.962 billion
– u the one reject when sleppy PM want to make Malaysia agri country, NCER n ECER
SINCE WHEN EVERYBODY PLANTING PALM TREE EXCEPT BOLEHLAND N INDO…THEN U SUPPORT CHOP TREE FOR CROP….forgot sake..hehe.
When there is chances to grow our ECONOMY, there will be our own people that try to fail it…
I dont know la what this pessimist want our country to do… you are like to reject everything Govt do…
if you are in doubt, ask the agency or send your concern to TV3…
i agree with ur comment
well, one thing palm oil offers us is a renewable source vs petrol/diesel….
Haliluya…lets use bisikal la
i read here somewhere before many of the folks who wrote here asking when is the G will make use of the biodiesel…and now when the G want to use it,many disagree…heeyaa…
no complains about it, but govt have to reduce retail prices as it means 5% reduction in petroleum products… no more price increase…
I hope this move won't mean more forests being cut down. Palm oil estates can never be as good as a rainforest of the same size in acting as a CO2 sponge, water catchment and shelter for animals.
well explain….bravo….
even u all explain it well….not all understand them actually….
upgrade diesel to euro 5 is better la…
then euro 5 price la..not sub..check for euro 5 price
vezoreth? ever heard of RSPO (roundtable of sustainable palm oil)? go google dat. u'll find out how palm oil agriculture practice has been developed wisely in order to eradicate all the negative comments that u gave.
if im not mistaken, palm oil per liter cost more than a diesel per liter, right?
then why mixed it… because it will increase the price…
plus the cost of mixing (diesel + palm oil) some more…
cost of new plant some more…
i think this is just a way for some cronies to make money…
contracts worth of RM43.1 million!
really lucrative…
Check this news archive from Thailand:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/life/family/11690/dies…
wonder if this biodiesel meets UN ECE of EN14214 or ASTM 6751 standards, or some made up Euro2M again… MPOB Standards perhaps :P
probably it will..since most plants (those contracted to produce for Europe) have to meet this standard for "Export quality"
nice…saab biodiesels and bmw biodiesels to come. btw, paul…..the bmw malaysia website has links to the bmw x1 and also there's this competition http://www.bmwjoy.com.my/
Well most of the rest of the world r using Bio-fuel. Maybe is the way…
No wonder sime advert the focus tdci as bio-diesel ready
caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan no problem.
ngan says:
25/3/2010 at 7:39 pm
is it not? tell me, why gov intro RON95 and 97 and not RON91?
Most Japs and European cars are compatible with RON91, go check the manual book. If government introduce RON91 which is cheaper than RON95, then nobody will want to buy Proton anymore. Coz the minimum RON for most protons are RON95.
and, do all the policy in malaysia govern by proton?
yes! most of them!
haish… open up your eyes, can’t ya?
******************
We are looking to move forward are we?
If Ron 95 can work in Ron91 compatible engine… why are we going backward?
if Govt intro Ron 91, somebody will ask, why dont ron88? isnt it?
if the govt directly intro ron100, the ron 91 will face prob, isnt it?
And the policy itself… cant you look farther and wider a bit instead of automotive industry only.. this is to benefit our agriculture, petroleum industry instead automotive…
1. To optimize our palm oil industry.
2. To drive Petronas to venture into biodiesel, then create new opportunity to the country…. we have petroleum, and we have palm oil… we have to maximised it, dont we?
Think positively…
Sime Darby's gonna make money. They do own palm oil plantations after all…
If this is just another move to experiment the applicability to use biodiesel, by all means make sure it is done in scientific manner with engineering approach.
Otherwise, this move will be seen as 'unapproved' public testing of the experimental biodiesel. Not all cars can cope up with this formula (a fair engineering assumption). More like 'force' consumption of untested fuel formula on the masses (so that the conglomerate could make money without losing at initial state?).
Remember, R&D is meant for selective testing on willing subjects, and not on the unwilling!
how about euro 4 diesel?
How biodiesel plants are operating in Malaysia?