Penalizing or banning older cars in general, even if they didn't access the central areas, would be really worse, but it still doesn't seem so fair to push for such restrictions against older cars. BTW considering that motorcycles are still usually certified to less stringent standards, even though a small 125cc motorcycle complying to Euro-3 standard is likely to have lower overall emissions than an Euro-4 car with just the driver and no passengers, are them getting affected by a similar measure?
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Originally Posted by JockoT
They have to have been tested to Euro 4 standards.
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Even though the resale value of a 2006 or older Euro-3 ride may not seem to justify the cost of a retrofit to become compliant to Euro-4 standards, and the Diesel engines of that period not being usually fitted with a DPF and thus easier to adapt for the usage of pure vegetable oils and other waste cooking fats (which don't require any further chemical processing) as alternate fuels, for me it seems not so eco-friendly at all to impose such restriction to their circulation. Eventually it would make sense to also use whitefish liver oil as a feedstock for biodiesel, especially in an archipelago like the UK. Let's also consider the lesser energy expense to keep them running instead of scrapping and the environmental footprint from the production of a new car which may eventually not be offset during such a short lifespan. Anyway, with so many fish-and-chips stands, one could guess there would be enough supply of waste frying oil all across the country
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Cost of conversion, even to LPG, is about £1500, and must be certified. There is no great incentive regards running costs as the cheaper price is more or less balanced by the reduced energy content.
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I wouldn't even consider LPG an alternate fuel at all, since it's petroleum-based. When it comes to gaseous fuels, biomethane seems to be the best option overall, due to the abundance of suitable feedstocks.
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Ethanol is not available, as we have to import it, due to lack of land for growing suitable crops.
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Ethanol can be brewed from byproducts of the industrial processing of nearly any crop, and also from residues of alcoholic beverages production and bakeries. There has also been some testing of starch-rich algae that can be raised in the vinasse of sugarcane ethanol production in Brazil to decrease its salt load before it's poured in the soil to be used as a fertilizer, and those algae can also be used as a feedstock for ethanol. Anyway, I've been more interested in biodiesel than ethanol, and there are plenty of crops suitable to its production in the UK, including Salicornia which can even be irrigated with saltwater.