PPC - Pollution Prevention Control (Permit)

Forgive me Bloggers, its been a few weeks since my last blog...


Part of the plan to make bioDiesel includes a "is this a business?" aspect. Living in the UK (and therefore the EU) there is a rather a lot of red tape to negotiate, particularly if there's chemical, big business and cars involved!

If we make more than 5 tonnes or about 5000 litres of BD per year, or sell any of it to the public, then I am deemed to be "Commercial" and so need regulating.

I have looked around the web and chat forums for info on the whole regulation thing and read some scare stories about consultants costing 10s of thousands needed to obtain said permits and also of the hoops to jump through if you DIY. By this time I'm getting a bit concerned so I called the Environment agency (who issue the permits) ad spoke to a very helpful chap in the local office. The long and short of it is that there are 2 types of permit, roughly based on if you dispose of by products by land fill/incineration or by other (environmentally friendly) means. His experience suggests most BD producers should be in the second group of "Low impact" permits.

Further, and this is the best bit, he advised they EA expects to offer around 15 hours of his time (he's the one who issues the permit) to assist with the forms/application process etc, free of charge. The only likely consultant costs would be the site survey (a benchmark of current site pollution/status etc).

All you have to do is ask!

Benchmark MPG figures

I have put forecourt Diesel into the 530d on 2 occasions so far and noted the mileage per tank (give or take a couple of miles) and the average MPG and Speed as reported by the on board trip computer. My daily drive included stop start/slow commute traffic on the school run (a few miles each day), travel between client sites (I work from home and visit local people or businesses each day, normally within about 30 - 45 mins drive of home) and occasional long trips on motorways. I estimate my annual mileage to be about 15 - 20K.

I bought my 530d with 77K on the clock. Its a BMW straight 6 turbo Diesel engine linked to a 5 speed "step tronic" auto box. The whole thing is in a big heavy 5 series touring (aka estate/station wagon) chassis that weighs around 1700Kg (3750lbs).

The first fill up 5/3/07, 64.92 litres, 434 Miles, 31.3 MPG avg, 22 MPH avg, 89.9p/litre
The next fill up 12/3/07, 67.84 litres, 488 Miles, 33.6 MPG avg, 26.1 MPH avg, 89.9p/litre.

I have found this great site by Robin White to do the conversion of miles and litres to miles per gallons.

From this site I have done 30.4 MPG and 32.7 MPG on the two tanks.

One of the reasons to make bioDiesel is to save money. To help workout the savings I need a benchmark of "normal costs" to compare against. With the cost per tank and the mileage per tank I can work out that the two tanks have cost me £0.134 per mile and £0.125 per mile.

I will try to keep up with the data as I drive and in time put it into a graph.