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Newcastle City Council Biodiesel
Report from Newcastle council.
Biodiesel facts sheet
Newcastle City Council (NCC) was awarded $100,000 from the NSW Environmental Protection Authority to fund Australia's first biodiesel fuel project in 2001. After 18 months of testing garbage trucks, passenger vehicles and light vehicles, biodiesel was installed in 228 council vehicles to form Australia's first biodiesel fleet. These changes have produced a 33 percent reduction in carbon monoxide and a 26 percent reduction in black smoke. This equates to a reduction of 590 tonnes (or 14 percent) in greenhouse gases emitted by Newcastle Council vehicles each year. While Newcastle City Council is the first council in Australia to implement an alternative fuel projects, it seems other councils may be getting biodiesel fever.
Source: treehouse.org.au.
Emissions Testing Program - Final Report - December 2004
This report presents the results of exhaust emission, fuel consumption and power tests on
twelve diesel engine vehicles from Newcastle City Council using diesel, filtered diesel and
biodiesel fuels.
The fuel used as the reference for this program was regular automotive diesel (less than
500ppm sulphur). The filtered diesel tested was also regular automotive diesel. The
biodiesel fuel tested was a B20 blend (20% biodiesel and 80% diesel).
The twelve vehicles used included light duty four-wheel drives, light and medium duty trucks
and garbage collection vehicles. The gross mass of the test vehicles ranged from 2.73
tonnes to 24 tonnes and they were all built between 1993 and 2002.
The vehicles were tested using the dynamometer test method and equipment specified in
the National Environment Protection (Diesel Vehicle Emissions) Measure for in-service
vehicles – the DT80 test. Measurements of smoke opacity, particulate matter (PM), oxides of
nitrogen (NOx), carbon dioxide (CO2) and power at 80 kph were taken. Fuel consumption
was calculated from the CO2 results using the carbon balance method. The results of tests
using regular automotive diesel, filtered diesel and B20 biodiesel were compared.
For filtered diesel it was found that there was no significant affect on exhaust emissions, fuel
consumption and power at 80 kph.
For B20 biodiesel fuel it was found that significant reductions were achieved for:
Smoke (30%) and PM emissions (39%)
B20 biodiesel fuel had no significant affect on NOx and CO2 emissions, fuel consumption
and power at 80 kph.
The benefits for B20 biodiesel fuel are consistent with other research reported by the United
States Environment Protection Agency (US EPA). The US EPA reported that there are
definite benefits for smoke and PM emissions with the use of B20 biodiesel.
Source:Newcastle City Council Biodiesel Trial - Final Report
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