Company has high hopes for 'green' diesel

Black plumes of soot emitted by diesel vehicles could be a thing of the past, says the group behind a new version of the fuel.

A five-man team at a Veranis Corporation workshop in Lower Hutt has concocted a secret formula which mixes water droplets with diesel to make a greener fuel.

Veranis managing director Ben Keet said "green diesel" was already used in Europe and North America, but no other company in New Zealand had yet developed it.

Tests on an old school-bus engine showed that running a vehicle on green diesel reduced the quantity of harmful particulates emitted into the air by 50 per cent.

The green diesel also cut nitrous oxide emissions from vehicles by 30 per cent, meaning far less soot would be produced.

Switching to cleaner fuels would be one way of reducing air pollution, Dr Keet said. "We can look at woodburners but that misses the bigger picture."

An Auckland Regional Council study in 2007 showed 400 people die prematurely each year because of health effects related to air pollution, much of which came from diesel use.

Veranis was in talks with bus, train and ferry operators to supply them with green diesel, and Dr Keet said he hoped to see more fuel suppliers offer similar products in New Zealand. Cleaner fuel would help reduce emissions from vehicles, and he said one of the benefits was that it could be used in any engine.

During the WelTec Innovation and Technology Expo at its Petone campus today, Veranis will be demonstrating how its green diesel works.

WelTec chief executive Linda Sissons said the expo was showcasing some of the most "innovative minds" from across the region and she hoped they would inspire people to visit.

Dr Keet said green diesel worked because small water droplets inside the fuel droplets exploded when the temperature increased within an engine cylinder. "They are like suicide bombers in a crowd of diesel droplets."

The water helped the fuel mix better with the air, meaning less harmful particulates were emitted – and it also had a cooling effect which reduced the amount of soot discharged.

The current green diesel formula was stable only for a week, but Dr Keet said the company was working with Massey University to develop a formula that was stable for 45 days – at which point it could be used commercially.

Produced in small quantities, it would add 20 cents to the cost of a litre of diesel, but at bigger volumes that would drop to 5c.

- © Fairfax NZ News