Vegetable oil, not just for cooking fish!
The Sea Fish Industry Authority are currently carrying out investigations at sea to try and discover if fishing boats can use vegetable oil to fuel boats. Engines are being created and existing engines modified to convert vegetable oil into the correct energy to power the fishing boat. Soon our fish could be caught by oil not just cooked in it.
The project is trying to help the fishing community by potentially cutting their fuel costs. Vegetable oil is of course far cheaper to use than conventional petrol or diesel.
The study was initiated as a result of the massive increase in fuel prices, which have hit the fishing industry incredibly hard. Independent fishing is a dying trade and the Seafish authority wish to prevent it dying out all together, by making it less expensive for them to run their boats.
The importance of this study is clear to the fisherman but it is also vital to the environment. Diesel used by boats has a much higher sulphur content therefore the emissions at sea are fairly high causing acid rain. These are thought to reduce by more than 99% if vegetable oil and other bio fuels are used.
It is considered relatively easier to convert marine engines to vegetable oil than those of land vehicles, as boats are usually lower revving and can tolerate different fuels.
Even though the actual running costs of a vegetable oil engine are lower than that of diesel there are modification costs. So it will only work if fisherman can afford the upfront costs of modifying their engines and will depend on the typical usage patterns of the boat.
Seafish plan to investigate using vegetable oil as fuel on boats for commercial use by the end of 2007.
