Car giant testing novel fuel in NZ

South Korean carmaker SsangYong, owned by China's giant Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, is said to be using New Zealand as a test-bed for waste vegetable oil as a fuel.

SsangYong has provided a 2.9-litre turbo-diesel Musso that Lower-Hutt company Renewable Energy Solutions has converted to a dual-fuel vehicle running on either "Envirofuel" - recycled cooking oil - or diesel.

Renewable Energy Solutions is also in the process of converting a 2.7-litre, diesel SsangYong Stavic (a new 7-seater MPV) to test the fuel, according to a report on ChangingWorld.com.

David Renwick, of Renewable Energy, has been running the Musso four-wheel-drive on fish and chip oil for over a year and plans to offer a conversion kit for vehicles at $5000. It would include a 1000-litre home tank to top up with waste vege oil, which he said on his company's website cost 49c a litre. Tests had shown fuel consumption to be about a third better than commercial diesel.

The oil was warmed in the vehicle's tank until it was thin enough to be atomised by the fuel injectors, allowing it to burn without forming deposits.

- NZPA