I have quite exstensive expereince of using veg oil and bio-deisel. Designed and fitted my own conversions and aound 100,000 miles on veg oil. Got may car exemted the Camden "environmental charge" based on it being carbon neutral, to this day I don't know of anyone esle who's done that.
I now run deisel. I would be very wary.
This whole sector is based on goverment policy and subsidies, companies come and go in quick sucession and product quality can be very variable. The business model may have little to do with making decent fuel
Veg based fuels are highly reactive, they are not benign and have a tendency to attack rubber, neoprene, copper and some plastics. Vehicles designed to run on these fuels have the right materials, but its safe to say most older vehicles do not. What you save in fuel you can spend on seal replacements.
These fuels are far from eco freindly, in the case of the soya based oils these are often grown on clear felled rain forest in Brazil - remember all that burning in Brazil - you can bet that is for fuel crops not food crops. To produce biofuel takes a lot of land, that's why some countries ban it. They do not want competition between fuel and food. The eco claims are more about getting access to Govement grants and subsidies than planet saving.
They are not carbon neutral, they could be if sourced locally, but the reality is that many raw materials come a long way. Heathrow Airport runs a state of the art bio-generating plant. It earns £200,000 per year in renewable subsidies from the tax payer. Its only economic because of the subsidy, it burns wood pellets grown on clear felled monoculture land in Amercia and transported acorss the Atlantic in temp and humidity controlled ships. Its carbon foot print is huge, but not in the UK so its OK. Its real purpose is to enable Heathrow to get "green credentials".
I supect that most users will be fleet operators who will either use this as a marketing tool or to get acess to subsidies. As a private user I would wait, there could be signficant problems to come, let other's learn them.
For those of use with Series and Lucas DPA pumps do not do this. The pump shaft will shear once the weather gets cold. Biofuels only work in pumps with separate oil systems (the Bosch in-line is the best).
I looked at the suppliers web sites, they seem cagey about the raw materials. There are two options - purpose grown crops, an ecological disaster but pure, or made from food or manufacturing waste, ecologically good, but prone to contamination. The used veg oil based fuels were often acidic due to meat contamination.
The problem is that it could be a year or two before it trashes your engine, the fleet users vehiles will all be leased but you will be stuffed, proving anything will be near impossible and the supplier will be long gone (well still there, but with a new name).
